Arab Spring: the UK stands with you
Nick Clegg: Britain will not turn its back on the millions of citizens across the Middle East hoping for a better life from the Arab Spring.
In a speech at the British Council in London, the Deputy Prime Minister said that the forces driving change in the region were “here to stay”.
Discussing the unfolding events in Libya, Mr Clegg said the UK remained “determined to help the Libyan people build a country that is safe, free and fair”.
He added:
The dramatic events in Libya overnight and the advances made by the Free Libya forces in Tripoli would have been unthinkable just a few months ago and unimaginable for the generations of Libyans who have never known a world without Gaddafi.
The momentum for change is really breathtaking. For the cynics who said change wasn’t possible, who have written off the Libyan uprising, who had written off the Arab Spring - clearly they were wrong.
The Deputy PM was speaking after a private meeting with activists involved in the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia earlier this year. The two countries’ regimes were toppled in the first wave of Arab Spring uprisings.
Read the speech: Nick Clegg’s speech on the Arab Spring