Envoy hints Libya ready to negotiate
Source: Agencies |
April 5, 2011, Tuesday
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A LIBYAN envoy was in Europe yesterday seeking to end the oil-producing country's bloody civil war that has become locked in a battlefield stalemate between rebels and forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.
Libya wanted a negotiated political settlement, Greek officials said, because a military solution to the conflict between rag-tag rebels backed by Western air power and Gadhafi's better armed troops now looked impossible.
"The Libyan envoy wanted to convey that Libya has the intention to negotiate," a Greek official said after the visit by Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi. "We don't think that there can be a military solution to this crisis."
Obeidi was expected in Turkey yesterday and Malta today.
"We'll now have to see how it is possible for such a process to start, a political process that will allow a national discussion," Gregory Delavekouras, Greek foreign ministry spokesman, told Greece's NET radio yesterday.
Beyond a willingness to talk, there was no sign of what Libya might offer to end the war that is bogged down on a frontline around the eastern oil town of Brega.
Wounded refugees from the town of Misrata said a massacre was taking place there, with one describing the situation as "hell." Libyan officials deny attacking civilians in Misrata, saying that they are fighting armed gangs linked to al Qaeda.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou had been talking by telephone with officials in Tripoli as well as the leaders of Qatar, Turkey and Britain over the past two days.
But Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, who had spoken to Greek officials, dismissed the Libyan envoy's message, saying a divided Libya was not acceptable and Gadhafi must quit.
After a meeting with Ali Essawi, a member of the Libyan rebel council looking after foreign affairs, Frattini said Italy, the former colonial power in Libya, backed the rebels.
"We have decided to recognize the council as the only political, legitimate interlocutor to represent Libya," he said.
"A solution for the future of Libya has a pre-condition - that Gadhafi's regime leaves and is out and that Gadhafi himself and his family leave the country," he said, adding an interim government headed by one of Gadhafi's sons was "not an option."
Libya wanted a negotiated political settlement, Greek officials said, because a military solution to the conflict between rag-tag rebels backed by Western air power and Gadhafi's better armed troops now looked impossible.
"The Libyan envoy wanted to convey that Libya has the intention to negotiate," a Greek official said after the visit by Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi. "We don't think that there can be a military solution to this crisis."
Obeidi was expected in Turkey yesterday and Malta today.
"We'll now have to see how it is possible for such a process to start, a political process that will allow a national discussion," Gregory Delavekouras, Greek foreign ministry spokesman, told Greece's NET radio yesterday.
Beyond a willingness to talk, there was no sign of what Libya might offer to end the war that is bogged down on a frontline around the eastern oil town of Brega.
Wounded refugees from the town of Misrata said a massacre was taking place there, with one describing the situation as "hell." Libyan officials deny attacking civilians in Misrata, saying that they are fighting armed gangs linked to al Qaeda.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou had been talking by telephone with officials in Tripoli as well as the leaders of Qatar, Turkey and Britain over the past two days.
But Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, who had spoken to Greek officials, dismissed the Libyan envoy's message, saying a divided Libya was not acceptable and Gadhafi must quit.
After a meeting with Ali Essawi, a member of the Libyan rebel council looking after foreign affairs, Frattini said Italy, the former colonial power in Libya, backed the rebels.
"We have decided to recognize the council as the only political, legitimate interlocutor to represent Libya," he said.
"A solution for the future of Libya has a pre-condition - that Gadhafi's regime leaves and is out and that Gadhafi himself and his family leave the country," he said, adding an interim government headed by one of Gadhafi's sons was "not an option."
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