Libya: US officials hold meeting with Gaddafi regime

Col Muammar Gaddafi's regime has ben in talks with American envoys Photo: GETTY/EPA

Πηγή: The Telegraph

By Alex Spillius, Washington and Richard Spencer

11:35PM BST 18 Jul 2011

American envoys have met representatives of Col Muammar Gaddafi's regime, a move that will increase speculation that Nato is seeking a deal to end the four-month long conflict.

A United States official said the first acknowledged contact with the regime since the military campaign started was held "to deliver a clear and firm message that the only way to move forward is for Gaddafi to step down".

"This was not a negotiation. It was the delivery of a message. We have no plans to meet again, because the message has been delivered," she said.

The meeting brought together three senior US diplomats, including Jeffrey D. Feltman, the top State Department official in charge of Middle East policy, along with four members of Col Gaddafi's inner circle.

Reports from Libya said the meeting was held on Saturday in Tunisia, the day after the US and others agreed to recognise the rebel Transitional National Council as the country's legitimate rulers.

However, with the Libyan dictator clinging to power despite the near daily air raids by Nato forces, and public opinion about the conflict growing more sceptical, efforts to reach some sort of accommodation with Col Gaddafi have increased.

Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, citing Libyan government emissaries, has said that Col Gaddafi was prepared to leave power by agreement.

"The Libyan regime is sending messengers everywhere, to Turkey, to New York, to Paris," he said.

Moussa Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Gaddafi regime, said the meeting was a "first step" towards repairing relations between the two countries.

"This is a first step and we want to take further steps. We don't want to be stuck in the past; we want to move forward all the time," he said.

The revelation came as Libyan rebels claimed the capture of Brega, though Gaddafi loyalists said they still held the key coastal city.

Rebels are holding eastern Libya and pockets in the west, but until Monday's assertion that Brega had been taken, had not made decisive moves towards the capital Tripoli, where Col Gaddafi remains entrenched.

After a weekend of vicious street-by-street combat, a rebel spokesman said they had surrounded or taken all parts of the town, except for an area where 150-200 loyalist troops were holding out.

Most regime forces had retreated to the next town along the coast, Ras Lanuf, he said.

It would be the regime's first significant defeat on the eastern front since late March.

The capture of Brega, home to Libya's biggest oil refinery and terminal complex, would be a major strategic and psychological victory for the Libyan opposition.

After the initial thrusts and counterthrusts of the campaign, in which Brega changed hands several times, the main wing of the rebel force has been unable to break west from its outpost in Ajdabiya, south-west of the headquarters in Benghazi.

With the lifting of the government's siege of Misurata and the rebels' slow advance in the south west, the regime is now unequivocally on the back foot for the first time since shortly after the coalition bombardment began in mid-March.

Britain, which has taken a tough line in arguing for more pressure on Col Gaddafi rather than negotiation, will hope that, combined with additional cash promised on Friday at a meeting of the Libya contact group in Istanbul, the military developments will see the regime start to crumble before a deal is reached.

Nato also continued its aerial attacks, destroying the civilian radar base at Tripoli airport, saying it was being used for military purposes.

Shamsiddin Abdulmolah, a rebel spokesman, told journalists that Brega had been mined, but that rebel forces were now pushing west along the coast road towards Ras Lanuf, another refinery town.

Around 15 rebel fighters were killed in the battle, according to reports on the ground. The government said 19 of its troops died in Nato air raids in support of rebel forces.

David Cameron said there was no option but for the embattled Libyan leader to go immediately.

Speaking during his visit to South Africa, he said that a "peaceful transition" was needed.

While his host, President Jacob Zuma, has attacked the coalition bombing campaign and reiterated calls for it to stop to allow negotiations, Mr Cameron said Col Gaddafi still could not be trusted.

"He has occasionally announced a ceasefire but all the time he announces it, he is shelling, maiming, murdering his own citizens. That's why there is a UN resolution," the Prime Minister said at a joint press conference in Pretoria.

Libya: world leaders kick start peace negotiations as US recognises rebels

Rebels make their way to the front line west of Ajdabiya Photo: REUTERS

Πηγή: The Telegraph

By Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent

7:57PM BST 15 Jul 2011

World leaders on Friday told a UN special envoy to negotiate a peace deal with Col Gaddafi that could see Libyan leader stay in the country after stepping down.
Abdul Elah al-Khatib, the special envoy, was asked by the Turkish foreign minister, host of a one-day summit attended by Nato and other leaders, to present a peace deal in the next two weeks.
It would have to be negotiated first not only with Col Gaddafi but with the rebel leadership in Benghazi.
Nato also increased the military and diplomatic pressure on the Gaddafi regime in careful mix of carrot and stick.

William Hague, the foreign secretary, said Britain was committing four more Tornado reconnaissance aircraft to the bombing campaign against Libya.
The United States said it was formally recognising the rebel Transitional National Council as the “legitimate governing authority” for Libya, a decision that could free up funds seized from the regime under United Nations resolutions.

Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, said that she would authorise the legal work necessary before Washington and the UN can release the frozen funds, estimated at up to USD34 billion, more than £20 billion.
The Libya “contact group” meeting in Istanbul was an attempt to present a common international front on the country’s civil war.
China and Russia, critics of the Nato bombing campaign, refused to attend.
NATO, while keen to paper over cracks that have appeared in the coalition’s stance in recent weeks, softened its insistence there could be no negotiations until Col Gaddafi stood down.

Turkey, which is not part of the coalition, went further than any other Nato member on the eve of the talks, calling for a ceasefire to be implemented throughout the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which this year starts on August 1.
It also proposed talks to enable Col Gaddafi to step down while remaining in Libya, the Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said. That might require revisions to United Nations resolutions.
“An exit strategy for Gadhafi to leave power, but not necessarily the country, should be sought by revising the UN Resolution 1973 if necessary,” he said in a briefing. He later added that he hoped Mr Khatib would find a political solution by the beginning of Ramadan.

Britain and the United States remain sceptical. Britain’s official position, is that it has a “strong preference” that Col Gaddafi be handed over for trial at the International Criminal Court, which has indicted him, his son Saif al-Islam and his security chief Abdullah al-Senussi for war crimes.

But it does not regard this as a “red line” and would accept him staying in the country if the rebels did, according to officials.

Mr al-Khatib will be given freedom to negotiate within four “red lines”.

These are broadly that Col Gaddafi must stand down, Libya must remain united, “justice” must be assured for the victims of repression, and there must be an “inclusive” transition process.

British planning for a post-Gaddafi period includes leaving some of the regime’s security forces in place to guarantee law and order.

Col Gaddafi is said to have offered “peace feelers” in recent days, although in a television broadcast on Thursday night he said he would “fight to the end”.

In a direct response last night, he said the recognition by the USA and others of the rebels was “insignificant”.

“Trample on those recognitions, trample on them under your feet,” he said.

“They are worthless.”

He is said to want Saif al-Islam to have a role in government even if he himself stands aside, but that would be unacceptable both to the rebels and to the international community.

It is not clear whether it would be practical for him to stay in Libya if he did step down. It has been suggested he could live under UN supervision in his tribal home of Sabha, in the southern desert, but that would mean giving him guarantees that he would not be handed over to the ICC in future, which western countries would find hard to do.

The added firepower Britain is promising, along with the extra money that might be on its way, will be welcomed by the TNC, which claims rebel-held areas are suffering severe shortages. It is also demanding more help from Nato to push its military campaign forward.

It said it did not expect a ceasefire until after Col Gaddafi had been defeated.