The prospect of international intervention legitimacy: case study of 2011 libyan armed conflict

4.1.1.1. The Franco-British Expedition: The Affirmation of an Imperial Policy in State of Emergency

The Franco-British and other shipping in Libya is part of the imperial tradition of the major Western powers. President Sarkozy strives to create the illusion of a return to the "greatness" of the France and Europe. Nevertheless as the time of during the colonial times, oil, exceptional quality and easily extracted as well as Libyan gas, represent the essential challenge of the change of regime in Tripoli. French-Libyan, Italian-Libyan and American-Libyan recent agreements were deemed not sufficiently reliable. Paris and London more felt needing a new share as they did not get the best concessions.^244(*)

In addition, many Libyan projects in process planned to rise up the State participation in the oil sector from 30 to 51%; it was also envisaged to replace the Western firms by Chinese, Russian and Indian companies. After a stage of compromise, Tripoli was preparing to implement a new policy.^245(*)

Moreover, for long, the United States wanted European States to take the relay of Western military expenditures, in particular to 'protect' African continent from the alternatives offered by China and the emerging powers to each African State. The role played by France in Libya complies perfectly with the views of the United States. On the other hand, United States have the ambition to install in Libya, in the Gulf of Sirte, the unified command "Africom" currently based in Stuttgart and that all African countries have so far refused. The trusteeship of the Libya will allow the installation of this commandment, 42 years after the expulsion of the U.S. bases from Libya by the Kaddafi revolution in 1969.^246(*)

One of the objectives of NATO accompanying the operation of ending up the Kaddafi regime, but passed over in silence, is also the desire to secure Israel. Israel needs Arab States agreeing to refuse solidarity with the Palestinians, as was done with efficiency with the Mubarak's Egypt. The popular movements in Tunisia and Egypt show a dangerous instability. This uncertainty must be compensated by the disappearance of a Libyan regime radically anti-Zionist.

France was also particularly concerned by Kaddafi's attempts of uniting the Africans against western interests. The floating of the African Union during the Ivorian crisis showed that the African is crossed by contradictions and that French influence is reduced. The influence of Gaddafi and the financial resources he detained competed strongly with those of France. The removal of the Libyan leader (many French operations have been mounted since 1975 against him), is therefore considered as the way to protect French interests in Africa by breaking the Libya becoming the alternative financial of the continent.^247(*)

4.1.2. Enforcing the Equal Treatment

To legally reduce those geopolitical trends indirectly expected by military superpowers when they adopt an expedition to «save lives», among prerequisites sine qua non, the UN Security Council should better apply the principle of equal treatment granted by the provisions of articles 2 and 3 of the Charter of United Nations. According to these articles, on one hand the Purposes of the United Nations are:

a. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end:

b. to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and

c. for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and

d. to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;

e. to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and

f. to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace; to achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and to be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.

On the other hand, the Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles:

a. the Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members;

b. all Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter;

c. all Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered;

d. all Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations;

e. all Members shall give the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter, and shall refrain from giving assistance to any state against which the United Nations is taking preventive or enforcement action;

f. the Organization shall ensure that states which are not Members of the United Nations act in accordance with these Principles so far as may be necessary for the maintenance of international peace and security;

g. and nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter.248(*)

* ²⁴⁴Achcar, G., op. cit., p. 81.

* ²⁴⁵ C. Portela, Humanitarian Intervention, NATO and the International Law. Can the Institution of Humanitarian Intervention justify Unauthorized Action?, Berlin Information Center for Transatlantic Security, Berlin, 2012, p. ii.

* ²⁴⁶ J. Foster, « Afghanistan, The TAPI Pipeline, and Energy Politics », Journal of Energy Security, 23 mars 2013.

* ²⁴⁷ David S. Yost, NATO Tansformed. The Alliance's New Roles in International Security, United States Institute of Peace, Washington DC, 1998, p. 189.

* 248 Articles 1 and 2 of the Charter of United Nations and ICJ Statute of 26 June 1998.