The United States and France have set a deadline of September 2nd to topple Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, with NATO powers ready to inflict a crushing blow if Gaddafi refuses to step down peacefully, according to Israeli intelligence sources based in Washington.
As we reported on Monday, NATO is reportedly preparing for a full ground invasion in order to oversee a final “coup de grace” that will manifest itself as a “large-scale, all-out military bid to kill or oust” Colonel Gaddafi.
NATO powers are looking to end the war in Libya within the next two months so that the conflict will be over by the time Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy convene for a crucial Israeli-Palestine peace summit in Paris on September 2nd. Obama and Sarkozy’s credibility as peacemakers will be completely undermined if they are still overseeing attacks on Libya, which is why a desire to bring the bombardment to an end is gaining greater urgency.
With Washington eager to prevent the Palestinian Authority from attaining full status as a member of the United Nations, as PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas prepares to file a request with the UN Security Council next week, a ploy to defer the move that will allow the US government to negotiate a peace deal on its own terms is instead in the works.
However, Obama and Sarkozy’s plan to meet with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the French capital on September 2nd is wholly dependent on the war in Libya being finalized by that time.
“According to the US-French plan, it will take place shortly after the Libyan war is brought to a close – ideally by a four-way accord between the US, France, Muammar Qaddafi and the Libyan rebels or, failing agreement, by a crushing NATO military blow in which the United States will also take part. The proposed accord would be based on Muammar Qaddafi’s departure and the establishment of a power-sharing transitional administration in Tripoli between the incumbent government and rebel leaders,” reports DebkaFile, an Israeli intelligence-gathering outlet that has proven accurate in the past.
The September deadline is also interesting considering other reports based on intelligence sources that suggest Israel is planning a surgical strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities in September as a means of distracting from and ultimately derailing the prospect of Palestinian
“The US and French presidents hope to be credited at home and in the Middle East with a triple feat: two diplomatic breakthroughs in the Middle East and a US-French victory in Libya. To this end, negotiations are going forward with the concerned parties,” states the Debka report.
Should NATO receive assurances that Gaddafi is willing to negotiate, there will be no need to launch a full ground invasion, but US troops are prepared for that eventuality. As we reported last month, sources from Ft. Hood, Texas as well as CENTCOM contacted us to reveal that the 1st Calvary Division (heavy armor) and III Corps were being deployed to Libya, but the timeframe wasn’t until October, which will be too late if Obama wants to get the job finished before the summit in Paris.
Gaddafi’s determination to cling to power and the resistance offered by large areas of the country who still support his regime ensures that NATO’s timetable for ending the conflict is not set in stone, and the war could drag on for many more months.
Earlier this week a senior Russian official told the Kommersant newspaper that Gaddafi had offered to give up power in Libya on the condition that his son would be allowed to run in a follow-up election. However, similar rumors of Gaddafi’s plans to step down or flee have circulated before and turned out to be baseless.
Chatter arising out of the recent Bilderberg Group meeting in St. Moritz, at which NATO chief Anders Rasmussen was reportedly in attendance, suggested that the bombardment of Libya would be intensified in order to achieve regime change.
In a bid to circumvent the Obama administration’s failure to obtain Congressional approval for the war, the Pentagon recently moved to transfer $5 billion in funds to pay for replacing bombs already used in Libya during the 801 attack missions flown by U.S. warplanes over the last three months, despite previously asserting that no replacements would be needed. This suggests that another massive bombardment is in preparation.
