The international reactions to the 2011 military intervention in Libya were the responses to the military intervention in Libya by NATO and allied forces to impose a no-fly zone. The intervention was authorized by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, approved in New York on 17 March, in response to the Libyan Civil War, though some governments allege participants in the operation exceeded their mandate.
Overall response from governments was generally split between strong opposition and conditional support for the intervention.
Individuals
Muslim Brotherhood-linked Egyptian scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi expressed his support for the no-fly zone put in place by the United Nations over Libya, saying, "The operation in Libya is to protect the civilians from Gaddafi's tyranny." Qaradawi also slammed Arab League leader and likely presidential candidate Amr Moussa for remarks criticizing the international intervention.[176]
In the United States, the U.S. role in the intervention was criticized by prominent leaders of the U.S. Tea Party movement. On April 4, 2011, for instance, Tea Party leader Michael Johns, a former Heritage Foundation policy expert on global affairs, criticized Obama's Libyan intervention, saying "this mess of a policy is what it looks like to have a community organizer running American foreign policy."[177]
Former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano expressed "uncertainty" toward the no-fly zone imposed by the UN Security Council. "The military measures should not damage the people more than the regime", Chissano said.[178]
The leader of the Muslim general council in Tanzania called international military intervention in support of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 an attack on Islam and described it as "barbaric" and a "massacre". The council called for an immediate ceasefire.[179]
A French MEP and president of the National Front, Marine Le Pen claimed that the transfer of the US command towards NATO increased the submissiveness of the French Armed Forces. Denouncing "the US supremacy" in the military intervention, she "refused the idea that France slavishly followed the USA in this new stalemate".[180] One month after the launching of hostilities, she claimed that France sank into Sarkozy's vote-catching war in Libya. She noticed that "the United Nations' mandate had largely been overstepped" and that "the deaths of civilians increased". Denouncing the planned dispatch of British, French and Italian military advisers to Libya and "Sarkozy's lies" about the war, she lamented the decision of the French authorities to compromise further France in "a new Afghanistan".[181][182]
Noam Chomsky has criticized the intervention, saying that "[t]here was no effort to institute a no-fly zone. The triumvirate at once interpreted the resolution as authorizing direct participation on the side of the rebels. A ceasefire was imposed by force on Gaddafi's forces, but not on the rebels. On the contrary, they were given military support as they advanced to the West, soon securing the major sources of Libya's oil production, and poised to move on." He has questioned the motives of overthrowing Gaddafi, saying, "the vast territory of Libya is mostly unexplored, and oil specialists believe it may have rich untapped resources, which a more dependable government might open to Western exploitation."[183]
Arab League – The Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, on 20 March said that the Arab League had wanted "the protection of civilians and not the shelling of more civilians",[3][4] but on 21 March reiterated his support for the operation,[5] something that is in accordance with what he said on 20 March, concerning the civilian casualties caused by the foreign intervention.
Gulf Cooperation Council – The secretary-general of the GCC strongly endorsed the use of international force in Libya on 21 March, lauding coalition forces for "protecting the people from bloodshed". GCC member state Qatar is joining coalition efforts to enforce the no-fly zone.[6]
