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BERLIN, March 18 (UPI) -- Libya, apparently reacting to the West's determination to protect the opposition in the North African country, said it would stop military action against rebels and abide by the U.N. Security Council resolution pushed by France, Britain and the United States. The immediate cease-fire is good news for the people in Libya but complicates the West's way forward in the North African country.
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Observers say Western powers will still show off military superiority in the region to make sure that the fighting stops. There have already been reports that Libyan forces shelled the city of Misrata Friday.
British Prime Minister David Cameron told the BBC after the cease-fire announcement that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi will be judged by his deeds and not his words.
The cease-fire came just a few hours after leaders from Britain and France said they would deploy war planes against Libya and that military action against Gadhafi's forces could begin within hours.
"We simply cannot stand back and let a dictator ... kill his people indiscriminately," Cameron said Friday in Parliament.
Britain will deploy Panavia Tornado and Eurofighter Typhoon jets, as well as air-to air refueling and surveillance aircraft to deal with Libyan forces, Cameron added.
A French government spokesman said attacks could be launched within a few hours if necessary.
The United States also has military assets in the region but hasn't commented on concrete military action. Washington isn't excited about the prospect of fighting in a third Muslim country after bloody conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy had battled hard for the U.N. resolution, backed by a 10-0 vote in the Security Council Thursday night. It came after weeks of fighting in Libya and calls from the international community on Gadhafi to step down.
Condemning the "gross and systematic violation of human rights, including arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture and summary executions," the resolution entitles states to take military action to protect civilians.
It imposes a no-fly zone, effectively closing the airspace over Libya, while strongly underlining that there was no support for foreign occupational troops in the oil-rich North African country.
The decision sparked angry protests by Gadhafi loyalists in Tripoli and jubilation among the rebels in their stronghold Benghazi, the BBC said.
Five countries -- China, Russia, India, Brazil and Germany -- abstained from the Security Council vote.
In a move likely shaped by domestic politics, the German government, which faces several crucial regional elections involving voters that are largely anti-war, decided it wouldn't side with its traditional allies on Libya.
"I would have welcomed if the German government had backed the resolution to demonstrate to Gadhafi the unity of the international community," Henning Riecke, a security policy expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations, a Berlin think tank, told United Press International in a telephone interview Friday. "Supporting the resolution doesn't mean you have to send in troops."
