Muammar Qaddafi’s diplomatic outreach failed to entice European leaders, as Italy rejected a reported cease-fire proposal and recognized the rebels’ interim council as the nation’s only legitimate government.
In
Libya, rebels pushed back regime loyalists to gain control of most of the oil port at Brega, according to al- Jazeera television. U.S. and NATO warplanes continued to destroy regime targets, such as military vehicles near Brega hit by a U.S. A-10 Thunderbolt II ground-attack jet, according to a statement from the Pentagon.
The Libyan government is calling for an “international dialogue” to resolve the conflict, and offering elections and political reforms, spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said at a Tripoli press conference broadcast on Sky News. The possible solutions would not include Qaddafi stepping down now, he said. His future must be decided by the Libyan people since he has “symbolic significance” for the nation, Ibrahim said.
Opposition leaders and Western government have stated that Qaddafi must go, and have demanded the Qaddafi regime honor the UN
Security Council’s demand for a cease-fire that allows humanitarian aid into embattled cities.
‘Keep the Pressure Up’
“At some stage, there will have to be a genuine cease- fire, then the political process can start,” said U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, who visited U.K. Typhoon pilots flying Libya missions from the Gioia del Colle air base in southern Italy. “Until then, we’ve got to keep the pressure up.”
Oil fluctuated near the highest level in 30 months in New York. Crude for May delivery rose 53 cents to settle at $108.47 a barrel on the
New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest settlement level since Sept. 22, 2008. Prices are up 28 percent from a year ago.
Libyan rebels plan to export crude oil for the first time from a port near Tobruk in eastern Libya. The tanker Equator, able to load 1 million barrels of oil, is due today at the Marsa al Hariga terminal, according to AISLive Ltd. ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. The rebels’ national council said April 1 that it had reached a deal to have Qatar help market Libyan oil, with proceeds going for food, fuel, medicine and other uses.
No ‘Game-Changer’
“That’s certainly news that should calm oil markets a bit,” said
Hannes Loacker, an analyst with Raiffeisen Bank AG in Vienna. “However, the supply volumes won’t be a game- changer.”
Elsewhere in the region, Yemeni police clashed with anti- government protesters in the southwestern city of Taiz, leaving at least 15 demonstrators dead and hundreds injured, Sadek al- Shujaa, chief of a local clinic, said in a telephone interview. The U.S. wants President Ali Abdullah Saleh to end the “appalling violence” and to reach a deal “as soon as possible” with the opposition, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in
Washington. Yemen’s opposition coalition called for international intervention to stop the bloodshed.
Separately, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on
Saudi Arabia to pull its security forces out of Bahrain, according to the
Associated Press.
Syria may announce a new government by April 9 to replace the one that resigned last week in the aftermath of protests, Al Watan newspaper said today, without saying where it obtained the information.
Greece,
Turkey
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini yesterday dismissed a reported cease-fire proposal by the Libyan leader, who sent an envoy to Greece and Turkey for talks. Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas said Qaddafi appeared to want a political solution.
“These proposals are not credible,” Frattini said at a news conference in
Rome with Ali al-Isawi, foreign affairs coordinator of the rebels’ governing group, the Interim Transitional National Council. Frattini said past truces declared by the regime were “systematically violated.”
Italy’s formal recognition of the rebels yesterday -- along with a similar decision by
Kuwait -- follows that of France and Qatar. The U.S. and the U.K. have yet to establish diplomatic ties.
Italy, Libya’s former colonial ruler, has been the largest buyer of oil and natural gas from the North African nation, according to the
International Energy Agency. Libya provided 22 percent of Italy’s crude oil imports before the conflict this year and the Greenstream underwater gas pipeline provided 13 percent of Italian gas imports, the IEA said.
Sons’ Plans
The Greek government said that a visit by Qaddafi’s acting foreign minister, Abdul Ati al-Obeidi, with Greek Prime Minister
George Papandreou was the latest attempt by the Libyan leader to resolve the crisis through a settlement. Late yesterday, Al- Obeidi met with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who made no comments afterwards.
At least two sons of Qaddafi are proposing a plan to move the Libyan leader out of power and oversee a democratic transition under his son, Saif al-Islam, the
New York Times reported, citing an unidentified diplomat and Libyan official. It wasn’t clear whether the elder Qaddafi would support such a plan.
Replacing Qaddafi with one of his sons “is not acceptable,” the opposition’s al-Isawi said at the news briefing with Frattini.
Civilians at Risk
The UN Special Envoy for Libya, Abdel Ilah al-Khatib, told the Security Council that the rebels’ cease-fire terms include an end to the regime sieges of rebel-held cities and pulling back all forces, freedom for Libyans to express their political views, and an agreement to have Qaddafi give up power.
“The purpose of the uprising was to see Qaddafi leave,” Khatib said he was told by opposition leaders in Benghazi.
The fighting is putting civilians in growing danger, said al-Khatib, a former Jordanian foreign minister.
Intensive fighting continued in the rebel-held western city of Misrata, with water and power cut off and food in short supply. Regime tanks began shelling an area of the city’s port about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the city center at about 9 a.m. local time, said a Misrata resident, who identified himself as Touka, by telephone.
“There is shelling and use of rocket-propelled grenade launchers and fighting taking place in the eastern part,” Reda Almountasser, another Misrata resident, said in a phone interview from the city.
Misrata Misery
The aid group Doctors Without Borders said it
evacuated 71 people injured in the fighting from Misrata by boat April 3.
“The hospital in Misrata reportedly came under bombardment early Sunday,” the humanitarian aid group said yesterday in a statement. “Remaining functional health clinics in the city are overflowing with severely injured patients and are running desperately short of medical supplies.”
Soldiers who have defected from Qaddafi units and better- organized rebel units were being deployed in battle near Brega, the
BBC said. Rebels arrived in
pickup trucks equipped with multiple-rocket launchers, according video shown by al-Jazeera.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization continued its air campaign. The alliance’s jets flew 154 missions over the country April 3, including 58 “strike sorties,” it said yesterday in a statement.
The U.K. is deploying four additional Panavia Tornado GR4 ground-attack aircraft, bringing its total to 12 in the NATO operation, Cameron said yesterday. In addition, the U.K. is providing “non-lethal” military equipment to the rebels, Hague told Parliament.
U.S. Flights Reduced
The U.S. began to carry out a pledge by President
Barack Obama to hand over most military missions to NATO and its allies, such as Qatar. The U.S. will keep its attack aircraft on standby, to resume flights if necessary, while U.S. command and control aircraft and navy ships remain in action.
The Obama administration announced it is lifting financial and travel sanctions imposed on Libya’s former foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, who defected to Britain. There are 13 senior Libyan government officials on the U.S. sanctions list, and the lifting of sanctions on Koussa is intended to “encourage others” to abandon the regime, the
U.S. Treasury said its announcement.
The U.K. sent a second team of diplomats to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, in eastern Libya, to meet with opposition leaders, according to an e-mailed statement from the British Foreign Office.
African Union Commission Chairman Jean Ping will meet with European and NATO officials in London and Brussels through April 5 “to further explore ways and means of resolving the crisis in Libya,” the AU said in a statement.
