US policy is that Libyan leader Moamer Qadhafi has to leave power, US President Barack Obama said on Monday, but stressed the United States would stick to the UN mandate in its military action in Libya.“Our military action is in support of an international mandate from the Security Council that specifically focuses on the humanitarian threat posed by Colonel Qadhafi to his people,” Obama told a press conference.
Obama said as part of the international coalition now enforcing a no-fly zone in Libya, he had “authorized the United States military to work with our international partners to full fill that mandate.”
“Now, I also have stated that it is US policy that Qadhafi needs to go,” Obama added after talks in Santiago with Chilean President Sebastian Piner