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Foreign Secretary talks of "tightening pressure" on Qadhafi regime

"The plan is to continue to tighten the pressure of every form, including the military pressure, on the Qadhafi regime" said Foreign Secretary William Hague.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

The Foreign Secretary discussed the latest situation in Libya on BBC’s Andrew Marr Show this morning.

Following reports that Qadhafi forces have fled Misurata, the Foreign Secretary said reports of forces completely pulling out seem to be exaggerated:

“This may be cover for actually using more insurgent type warfare without any uniforms and without tanks. It doesn’t mean the Qadhafi regime has pulled out of Misurata, but they are clearly under military pressure and they will come under ever greater diplomatic and economic pressure which we will be continuing to work on. Our Contact Group on Libya will meet again in about ten days time in Rome.”

He said that there is a lot of evidence that the Qadhafi regime is “politically demoralised”,

“I think a lot of them can see there is no future for this regime. Time is not on Qadhafi’s side. People ask about the exit strategy it is Qadhafi who needs an exit strategy because this pressure will only mount. It will be intensified over the coming days and weeks.”

The Foreign Secretary said the Coalition forces are not getting involved in sending ground forces in to Libya:

“The UN resolution forbids that, it says no foreign occupation of any parts of Libya. We will keep the strong legal, moral and international foundation to what we are doing that comes from acting within the United Nations resolutions. What we have to do to implement those resolutions will change from week to week, but that does not mean we are creeping in to a ground war in Libya.”

“There is a political process needed at the end of all this, but that requires the Qadhafi forces to stop their attacks on civilians and indeed it requires Qadhafi to go.”

Published 24 April 2011