Letter: Libya and the law

The resurrection of liberal interventionists calling for action against Muammar Gaddafi in Libya requires an urgent debate over the legal status as well as the wisdom of such activity.

The starting point of any legal analysis is the basic prohibition in international law of the use of armed force against the territorial integrity of an independent state.

An exception would be operations authorised by the United Nations Security Council in response to a threat to international security, but in the case of Libya that would be quite a stretch.

Fortunately, permanent UN Security Council members France and Russia are poised with their vetoes and the three Arab members are absolutely against such a move.

In any case, the unlawful use of force will hardly encourage Arab respect for the rule of law and will damage our ability to influence events in the region over the longer term.

(Dr) John Cameron

Howard Place

St Andrews

Your report on the conflict in Libya (3 March) gives statistics relating to the military hardware carried on just three US warships.

These carriers can deploy a formidable force of early warning and reconnaissance planes and Harrier jump-jets, the latter a triumph of British invention and engineering.

The UK now has no large carriers, no reconnaissance planes and no Harriers.

Any talk of enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya, or indeed, any airborne intervention anywhere else in the world, is just pie in the sky.

We might just manage a pie, but we have opted out of any meaningful military presence in the sky!

James L Shearer

Cargilfield View

Edinburgh

We are advised by our Prime Minister of the need to bring democracy to a certain oil producing state in the Middle East.

Can anyone explain why in this oil producing democracy, the "United" Kingdom, the price of fuel at the pumps is not the same in London as it is in Lerwick or in other rural areas?

Grant Mooney

Pinnaclehill Park

Kelso