Hans Rustad Tyskland reserverer seg ikke bare verbalt mot bombingen av Libya. Berlin trekker ut skip og mannskap på AWACS-fly som patruljerer Middelhavet.
Beslutningen vil neppe bli nådig mottatt av Paris, London og Washington.
Germany is withdrawing ships and air crews in the Mediterranean Sea from various long-running Nato operations following the military alliance’s decision to enforce a UN arms embargo on Libya, according to the Associated Press news agency.
Berlin isn’t participating in the operation to impose a no-fly zone in Libya and abstained on the U.N. resolution authorising it.
Because of the risk of getting drawn in, the German defence ministry said today that Germany was putting two ships and two smaller boats with a total of some 550 sailors in the Mediterranean back under national command.
It also is pulling out between 60 and 70 German airmen from Nato Awacs surveillance aircraft involved in Operation Active Endeavor, in which the alliance monitors and escorts shipping across the Mediterranean to deter terrorist activity.
The German decision won’t exactly please the governments of the UK, France and the US which have been trying to hammer out a deal to move the command of the Libyan operations on to a clearer command footing with Nato involvement.
