World divided days after Libya action: Putin, Beijing, renew criticism

The international community was deeply divided over Libya on Monday, just days after the United Nations passed a no-fly resolution that allowed Western air strikes to protect civilians from Muammar Gaddafi's forces. Russia and China abstained in Thursday's Security Council vote on the no-fly zone but issued trenchant criticism of the operation, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin comparing the air campaign to "medieval crusades".
That highly emotive language earned him a rare rebuke from his former protégé, Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president saying Moscow would not participate in any military coalition in Libya but was open to a peacekeeping role. The divisions, which have affected European allies, Nato and the Arab world, reflect diverse domestic agendas and foreign policy goals.
Arab League chief Amr Moussa said he respected a UN resolution authorising military action in Libya, having questioned at the weekend the need for a heavy bombardment he said had killed many civilians. "We respect the UN resolution and there is no conflict with it, especially as it indicated there would be no invasion but that it would protect civilians from what they are subject to in Benghazi," Moussa said.
The Western air campaign, led by France, the United States and Britain, has divided Nato member states with Germany saying the Arab League's criticism of the operation vindicated its decision not to get involved. "We calculated the risk. If we see that three days after this intervention began, the Arab League already criticises (it), I think we had good reasons," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told reporters. "We see that we have reasons for our concern."
ARAB WORLD DIVIDED The Arab world, too, was divided on the issue. Qatari warplanes have joined the international strike force imposing the no-fly zone. Iraq said it supported international intervention, although influential Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr condemned it and said Western states should avoid civilian casualties.
Libyan rebels themselves have welcomed the air campaign, which has, for now, halted the advance of Gaddafi's forces on the rebels' stronghold in the eastern city of Benghazi. It has not yet allowed them to break out towards Tripoli, but the rebels say they want to take the capital themselves and do not want foreign ground troops.
"The committee rejects foreign troops on the ground but we encourage the (aerial) bombardments of Gaddafi's army," Ahmed El-Hasi, a spokesman for the February 17 opposition coalition, said in Benghazi. The United States, with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, has ruled out sending in its forces and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Arab countries did not want the military operation to be run by Nato.
Turkey, a key member of the Western military alliance, is sceptical about any Nato role and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the military operation against Gaddafi's forces should end as quickly as possible so Libyans could settle their own future.