In an amazingly daring and bold operation, US Navy SEALs have responded to requests from the Libyan and Cypriot authorities, to seize the stateless oil tanker which was commandeered by the Jadhran's federalist movement and was sailing around the Eastern Mediterranean looking to sell its oil. This American move demonstrates many things: 1. Obama is a strong leader with a Foreign Policy vision who is willing to exercise force in a targeted manner to uphold the aims of the USA and the international community. 2. The US has not turned its back on Libya. 3. The majority of the Libyan people welcome this kind of international support. And 3. It is quite clear that 'we' cannot and will not let the Jadhran style federalists win, now that federalism of this kind is not about administrative decentralization but is actually about Brigandary, piracy, lies, and dysfunctionality. To read more about what has just transpired here is David Kirkpatrick's summary for the NYT.
United States Navy commandos seized a fugitive oil tanker in the Mediterranean waters southeast of Cyprus on Monday morning, thwarting an attempt by a breakaway Libyan militia to sell its contents on the black market, the Pentagon said. No one was hurt in the operation, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The seizure of the oil, which the United States Navy says it is now returning to Libya, is also a blow to the ambitions of Ibrahim Jathran, the leader of the eastern Libyan militia that sought to sell the oil. Mr. Jathran, who has presented himself as a kind of Libyan Robin Hood, has led an eight-month blockade of Libya’s main oil ports to demand more political autonomy and a bigger cut of the oil revenue for his region, which contains most of the country’s oil reserves.
But in addition to depriving the Libyan government of critical revenue, Mr. Jathran has also irked American and international concerns that have stakes in the Libyan oil industry. The willingness of the United States military to stop illicit exports appears to even out the balance of power between the government in Tripoli and Mr. Jathran’s militia in the east. While Tripoli has been unable to force Mr. Jathran to reopen the ports, he appears unable to sell the oil on his own either, returning the two sides to a stalemate.