Hague says 'Col Gaddafi must go'

2011-02-27 11:05:23

27 February 2011 Last updated at 18:32 Share this page Delicious Digg Facebook reddit StumbleUpon Twitter Email Print Libya rescue: William Hague says Gaddafi 'must go'

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The BBC's Jon Leyne reports on the Royal Navy's rescue effort in Benghazi

The Foreign Office has closed the British embassy in Tripoli, leaving a skeleton staff working in a different building.

But former UK ambassador to Libya and deputy chairman of the Libyan British Business Council, Oliver Miles, said he believed that decision was "shocking" and wrong.

"Why have we closed the embassy, when as William Hague said, we've got humanitarian aid measures ready on either border?

"We've got still British subjects in trouble inside Libya and we've got presumably the prospect, we hope, of some kind of new government which will immediately need to get in touch with the rest of the world and will need help," he said.

Also on Saturday, two RAF Hercules flew the 150 oil workers to the safety of Malta.

Continue reading the main story “Start Quote

For British Special Forces yesterday was a difficult mission deep inside Libya but was not one of the most challenging plans that are being looked at”

End Quote Gavin Hewitt BBC's Europe editor Gavin Hewitt's blog

Mr Hague said Libyan authorities had not given permission for the rescue operation - despite being contacted - but the UK government felt "it was the only sure way to get people out of the desert".

The Foreign Office said the Hercules passengers had been met by a team of consular officials and Red Cross staff in Valletta, where they would be helped before returning to Britain on a government-chartered plane on Sunday or Monday.

Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy commended the "remarkable bravery" shown by British forces and said it provided the government "with an opportunity to move on from the incompetence and complacency of last week".

But Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg told Sky News that the rescue had been "meticulously planned and extremely well executed".

Much of Libya, especially the east, is now controlled by anti-Gaddafi forces but the Libyan leader, who is coming under increasing pressure from the international community over his crackdown against protesters, still controls Tripoli.

The capital is home to two million of the country's 6.5 million population.

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