Rasmussen earlier said alliance has no plans to intervene in the conflict
During a visit to Budapest today, the NATO Secretary General made the following statement:
“What is happening in Libya is of great concern to all of us. It’s a crisis in our immediate neighbourhood. It affects the lives and safety of Libyan civilians and those of thousands of citizens from NATO member states. Many countries are now evacuating their citizens from Libya – clearly, a massive challenge.
I can tell you that I have convened an emergency meeting of the NATO council this afternoon to consult on the fast-moving situation. I will return to Brussels in a few hours. Before I do so, I will meet with EU Defence Ministers and discuss with them how we, in a pragmatic way, can help those in need and limit the consequences of these events”.
Pressed by journalists, Rasmussen refused to go into specifics, but said, “clearly priority must be given to evacuation and possibly, also, humanitarian assistance”. He added “it’s well known that NATO has assets that can be used in a situation like this and NATO can act as an enabler and coordinator, if and when, individual member states want to take action”.
This appears to be a U-turn given that the secretary general only 24 hours earlier said that the alliance would not intervene in Libya and that any outside intervention should have a United Nations mandate.
"We have not received any requests in that respect. And anyway, any action should be based on a clear UN mandate," Rasmussen said during a visit in Kiev, Ukraine. He added that events in Libya do not threaten any NATO members or allies, but the conflict could spark a mass refugee crisis.
The European Union has already decided to prepare new sanctions against Libya, and the United States has said it is also considering sanctions. But neither has officially suggested using force. President Obama said earlier in the week that he has ordered his national security team to prepare "a full range of options" for dealing with the crisis, and yesterday he spoke with the leaders of France, Italy and the United Kingdom on coordinating an international response to the crisis.
Calls for intervention (see NATO Watch News Briefs 22 February and 24 February) are gathering pace. NATO defence chiefs ought to be holding discussions about "not taking action but preparation" for the Libyan crisis, Robert Kagan, a Mideast expert who worked in the State Department under President Ronald Reagan, told CNN yesterday. No-fly zones, sanctions and freezing of Gaddafi's assets are among the options being considered by Western political leaders.