WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama vowed Monday to work with US allies to "halt the rise of piracy" off Somalia's coast, as the Pentagon warned there was no purely military solution to the seaborne scourge.As the US public savored the daring rescue of an American captain, in which US Navy snipers killed three of his four captors, Washington grappled with ways to blunt the headline-grabbing threat to international shipping."I want to be very clear that we are resolved to halt the rise of piracy in that region," Obama said at an event designed to highlight investments in transportation infrastructure."To achieve that goal, we're going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks, we have to continue to be prepared to confront them when they arise and we have to ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes."His remarks were his first in public on the rescue of Maersk Alabama cargo ship Captain Richard Phillips, held hostage aboard a lifeboat adrift off Somalia's coast in a harrowing five-day standoff."His safety has been our principal concern, and I know this came as a welcome relief to his family and his crew," said Obama, who telephoned the skipper's wife on Easter Sunday.US officials moved to cobble together a fresh strategy for battling piracy, reaching out to other capitals, mulling ways to prosecute captured pirates like the lone survivor among the captain's captors and assessing the prospects for stabilizing Somalia and drying up the flow of piracy recruits."There is no purely military solution," US Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a group of 30 students and faculty members at the Marine Corps War College in Quantico, Virginia, in remarks first reported by a military news service.more..http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090413/pl_afp/somaliapiracyshippinguspoliticsresponse
Monday, April 13, 2009
Obama: US, partners will sink piracy
WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama vowed Monday to work with US allies to "halt the rise of piracy" off Somalia's coast, as the Pentagon warned there was no purely military solution to the seaborne scourge.As the US public savored the daring rescue of an American captain, in which US Navy snipers killed three of his four captors, Washington grappled with ways to blunt the headline-grabbing threat to international shipping."I want to be very clear that we are resolved to halt the rise of piracy in that region," Obama said at an event designed to highlight investments in transportation infrastructure."To achieve that goal, we're going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks, we have to continue to be prepared to confront them when they arise and we have to ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes."His remarks were his first in public on the rescue of Maersk Alabama cargo ship Captain Richard Phillips, held hostage aboard a lifeboat adrift off Somalia's coast in a harrowing five-day standoff."His safety has been our principal concern, and I know this came as a welcome relief to his family and his crew," said Obama, who telephoned the skipper's wife on Easter Sunday.US officials moved to cobble together a fresh strategy for battling piracy, reaching out to other capitals, mulling ways to prosecute captured pirates like the lone survivor among the captain's captors and assessing the prospects for stabilizing Somalia and drying up the flow of piracy recruits."There is no purely military solution," US Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a group of 30 students and faculty members at the Marine Corps War College in Quantico, Virginia, in remarks first reported by a military news service.more..http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090413/pl_afp/somaliapiracyshippinguspoliticsresponse
No comments:
Post a Comment