An article from The Guardian discusses the possibility of France proposing sanctions against certain Libyan politicians that have been resisting the formation of a UN-back Libyan government. The purpose of this effort would be to help ensure the successful formation of such a unity government that would potentially allow for increased Western intervention within Libya. The degree to which such sanctions would be effective is debatable; moreover, this proposition comes a time when even Western powers are criticizing each other over how to proceed.
In a bid to end the impasse, the French foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, said of the current Libyan leadership: “I do not exclude threatening them with sanctions. In any case, that is what I will propose to my foreign affairs colleagues on Monday in Brussels.”“Now, we can wait no longer,” he added, denouncing those who “put themselves in the way out of self-interest. We have to fight Daesh [Isis] where it is trying to develop in Libya, but the precondition is the constitution of a new national unity government,” Ayrault told i-Télé.The Libyan issue has been given added political force after Barack Obama criticised David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy for failing to do more to guarantee a political settlement in Libya after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.Obama’s stinging criticism, expressed in Atlantic magazine’s interview with the famously anti-interventionist president, will be deeply wounding to Cameron, even though Downing Street says it is less interested in an inquest than in resolving Libya’s political problems.
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