SABER-RATTLING

Hillary: U.S. May Arm Libya Rebels

Says U.N. has relaxed arms embargo.

Allied leaders at a conference on Libya in London today made clear that they won’t stop military action until Muammar Gaddafi is driven from power. There doesn’t appear to be much appetite for putting foreign troops on the ground in Libya, but rebel forces are stalled. How to end the stalemate? Well, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.N. resolution that authorized a no-fly zone over the country might also give allies a way to get around a longstanding arms embargo on the country and arm the rebels fighting leader Gaddafi—and Britain seemed to concur. “All of us must continue the pressure on and deepen the isolation of the Qaddafi regime," Clinton said. But despite this, and a plea by rebels for weapons, no country has announced an intention to actually start running guns to the insurgents. At the conference, allies also discussed the possibility of allowing Gaddafi to escape into exile—a prospect that seems to have some support as a good way to end hostilities.