The Obama administration has been eager to transfer military command in order to portray the seven-day-old operation as an international mission, undertaken for humanitarian reasons, rather than a U.S.-led offensive in another Muslim country.
Obama is also facing mounting pressure from Congress about the extent of U.S. involvement in a mission he has said would be turned over to international control in “days, not weeks.” At least two congressional committees have scheduled hearings next week on Libya.
Obama spoke Friday with Democratic and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill as part of ongoing consultations on Libya, and he intends to update the American public on the issue “in the very near future,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
NATO agreed early this week to assume command of an arms embargo and no-fly zone authorized by the United Nations Security Council. But alliance members disagreed on whether NATO should also control the air-to-ground missions being conducted by the United States, France and Britain — under U.S. command — to enforce separate provisions in the U.N. resolution authorizing the protection of Libyan civilians and “civilian areas.”
As a result of the political accord reached Thursday, there will be “no more dual-hatting, no more command change,” said one U.S. official. “It’s one mission, one boss, one theater.”
The basis for the agreement was reached during a telephone call Thursday night among Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her counterparts from Turkey, France and Britain. During nearly a week of NATO debate, France argued that the ground strikes should remain a joint U.S.-French-British mission to avoid offending Arab nations willing to participate in the non-combat parts of the mission under NATO but reluctant to sign onto the bombing campaign.
Turkey, a NATO member, said that only NATO leadership of the operations would allow sufficient transparency and coordination.
Two Arab nations, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, have sent aircraft to participate in no-fly zone enforcement.
The U.S. official said NATO must still draw up official mission plans and rules of engagement for the airstrike operations, expected to be completed by early next week if not sooner. But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity until the command change has been made, said the shift would be relatively easy since the same forces — U.S., French and British — would be participating in the operation.
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