Gaddafi call for talks to end Libya political crisis rejected
CHRISTOPHE SIMON | NATION
Refugees share food while waiting to be evacuated near the port of the besieged Libyan city of Misrata on April 30, 2011 as two boats await clearance to approach the city’s coast after mines were discovered by Nato amid threats by the Muammar Gaddafi regime to hit any ships entering the lifeline port.
What you need to know:
- Rebel spokesman says he fears loyalists were seeking to open a new front in the eastern desert in a bid to advance on Ajdabiya
Tripoli, Saturday
Muammar Gaddafi vowed today not to step down and proposed talks to end Libya’s conflict, a call that was rejected by rebels and by Nato, as his forces pressed an offensive against the key port of Misrata.
At the same time, a rebel spokesman said he feared loyalists were seeking to open a new front in the eastern desert to advance on Ajdabiya, a strategic road junction and gateway to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
In an early morning speech on state television, the Libyan leader said Nato “must abandon all hope of his departure”.
“I have no official functions to give up: I will not leave my country and will fight to death,” he said.
But he added a conciliatory note.
“We are ready to talk with France and the United States, but with no preconditions,” Gaddafi said.
“We will not surrender, but I call on you to negotiate. If you want petrol, we will sign contracts with your companies — it is not worth going to war over.
“Between Libyans, we can solve our problems without being attacked, so pull back your fleets and your planes,” he told Nato.
Gaddafi said the rebels battling his forces “are terrorists who are not from Libya, but from Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia and Afghanistan”.
He also insisted his people love him, that he is like a father to them — “more sacred than the emperor of Japan is to his people”.
His call for talks was dismissed by the opposition Transitional National Council (TNC), which has shaped itself into a parallel government in the eastern city of Benghazi, and by Nato.
“The time for compromise has passed,” said TNC vice-chairman Abdul Hafiz Ghoga.
“The people of Libya cannot possibly envisage or accept a future Libya in which Gaddafi’s regime plays any role,” he added.
In Brussels, a Nato official also rejected the offer of talks.
“We need to see not words but actions,” the official told AFP.
UN Security Council Resolution “1973 explicitly calls for an end to attacks on and abuses of civilians. The regime has announced ceasefires several times before and continued attacking cities and civilians,” the official said.
On the ground, witnesses reported two loud blasts at dawn in eastern Tripoli after Gaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, vowed on Friday that Libya will “fight Nato for 40 years” if necessary.
“We will not raise the white flag of surrender,” he said on a tour of hospitals to visit people said to have been wounded in Nato bombardments.
And the regime threatened to attack any ships trying to enter the rebel-held port of Misrata, after tanks launched an assault on the city east of Tripoli.
Misrata’s port is a crucial conduit for humanitarian aid to the city of half a million, which Gaddafi’s forces have been trying to capture for more than seven weeks.
The fighting in Misrata has intensified 10 weeks after government forces launched a deadly crackdown on protests inspired by regime-changing movements in Tunisia and Egypt.
An AFP correspondent there said 10 people had been killed and 20 wounded by mid-afternoon today, with witnesses saying as many as five tanks were seeking to advance on the city from the airport.
Earlier, AFP journalists reported loud blasts and heavy machine-gun fire from the direction of the airport after rebels said they destroyed at least four advancing tanks. (AFP)
