Operation Oil Theft: Month 4, Week 3, Day 1.

Since Tuesday (21/6/11) Libya has been relatively peaceful. NATO bombing has continued but at a reduced rate. Libyan government and rebel forces continue to exchange fire along the three front lines of Ajdabiya, Misrata and the Nafusa mountains. Although they've been largely un-involved so far a large part of the coalition's (Britain, France, Qatar) recent effort has been to find out if Israel give thier consent for the American/Egyptian training of rebel fighters that continues in the Green mountains.

On Wednesday (22/6/11) the coalition, specifically Qatar tried to increase the stranglehold on Tripoli by accusing Turkey of breaking the UN resolution by supplying food to the residents of the city. This obviously had the knock on effect of increasing tensions between Turkey and Syria over the issue of Syrian refugees. It also prompted the international community to push back against the coalition and get them to explain and justify exactly what they think they're up too in Libya. This is the third reason why Britain decided to leak the news that it's military has command of an underground network of rebel fighters in Tripoli.

The increased international opposition has also prompted the coalition to accelerate their efforts to improve the public image of the rebels. This has involved the release of numerous videos and statements designed to show that the rebels are capable of running a functioning state which security, health care and an economy. It has also involved addressing the war crimes that have been committed by the rebels during the conflict in order to both teach them that this is unacceptable behaviour and convince the world that it won't happen again.

One example of this was a video report from rebel positions near the Nafusa front line. It featured Libyan government troops who'd been captured by the rebels in order to show that the prisoners were being humanely treated rather then tortured and executed as they were in the early part of the conflict. The only problem was that during the interview one of the prisoners went into a long and scripted speech about how Qaddafi had lied to him and he didn't know he'd be forced to kill "innocent Libyans." This is a clear example of a prisoner of war being used for propaganda purposes - something that it strictly forbidden by the Geneva conventions. To make matters worse none to the prisoners were identified in the video so it didn't even qualify as showing proof of life. The report has also managed to inflame an argument between the Israelis and Palestinians over whether or not the Palestinians should release another video of their prisoner - Ghalid Shilat - to prove that he is still alive.

The complexity of the Libya conflict along with the time it has gone on for has prompted many in Europe, led by Italy, to call for some sort of peace deal that will allow Qaddafi to remain in power. Obviously though no-one is suggesting that any such deal would in any way affect the coalition's access to Libya's oil.