Leaked: UN’s Plan for Post-Gadhafi Libya

NATO 'Mandate' to Continue Beyond Regime's Fall

A new leaked document today reveals the United Nations’ vision for and preparations toward the inevitable post-Gadhafi Libya, complete with plans for foreign “military observers” and UN-run elections.

The UN plan also insists that the UN Security Council “mandate” that NATO used as a pretext for war isn’t going to actually end with the fall of the Gadhafi regime, and that the UN considers NATO to have an open-ended mandate to do whatever it wants to “protect civilians” going forward.

Today’s 10 page plan is starkly different from the NATO-rebel 70 page plan leaked earlier this month, which included plans for mass arrests of dissidents, the creation of a new state media to order people to obey the rebel regime, and a 15,000-strong UAE controlled occupation force in Tripoli.

The differences between the two plans may eventually be the source of some tension between NATO and the UN, which both have different visions of how they will run Libya. Given the UN’s belief that NATO is still free to operate as it wants, NATO’s plan may well be seen to trump the UN one.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.