Cameron: Nations can arm Libyan rebel fighters

[March 30, 2011]  LONDON (AP) -- Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday he's certain there is a legal loophole to allow nations to supply weapons to Libya's rebels -- but stressed the U.K. has not decided whether it will offer assistance.

Cameron told lawmakers that his legal advice was clear that under the United Nations Security Council resolution weapons could be handed to opposition fighters in some limited circumstances.

"We do not rule it out, but we have not taken any decision," on whether to supply equipment, he told the House of Commons.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told an international summit on Libya in London on Tuesday that the U.N. resolution would allow nations to circumvent a current arms embargo.

Cameron's office acknowledged that aside from the legal issue, there could potentially be some practical problems involved in supplying arms.

Under the U.N. resolution authorizing necessary measures to protect civilians, nations supplying weapons would need to be satisfied they would be used only to defend civilians -- not to take the offensive to Gadhafi's forces.

Cameron's spokesman Steve Field said British and other diplomats were involved in negotiations with the rebel leadership in Benghazi partly to gauge if the opposition would be trustworthy allies.

"We are in the process of talking to those people and learning more about their intentions," Field told reporters.

[Associated Press]

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