Tuesday, April 05, 2011

By Joseph Krauss
Agence France Presse

BENGHAZI, Libya: Libyan rebels Monday dismissed any possible peace deal which might see Moammar Gadhafi’s son left in charge of the country.

Rebel fighters also made a new attempt to recapture Brega, advancing to outskirts of the oil refinery town only to be forced back under artillery fire, as Gadhafi’s envoy arrived in Turkey for talks on a possible “road map.”
Italy said it was joining France and Qatar in recognizing the rebels’ Transitional National Council, and said it would send ships and planes to evacuate wounded from besieged Misrata.

Loyalist forces also attacked oil fields in the remote south the insurgents were hoping to use to fund their revolt.
The rebels insisted Gadhafi’s entire family must leave Libya before there could be a truce amid reports the regime is pursuing a cease-fire and his sons want to oversee a transition.

After Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou met Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Abdelati Laabidi, Athens said Gadhafi’s regime was “looking for a solution.” The New York Times had reported that two of Gadhafi’s sons were offering to oversee a transition to a constitutional democracy including their father’s removal from power.

But the rebels swiftly rejected any deal involving the Gadhafi family. “Gadhafi and his sons have to leave before any diplomatic negotiations can take place,” TNC spokesman, Shamseddin Abdulmelah said. He said the regime had lost any right to talk of a negotiated exit after it continued to pound Misrata, 214 kilometers east of Tripoli.

A Turkish aid ship which arrived in Benghazi Sunday carrying more than 250 patients it had picked up in Misrata left early Monday for the Turkish port of Cesme.
Gadhafi envoy Laabidi traveled to Ankara Monday for talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, with an eye to drawing up a possible cease-fire and a “road map” of political reform.

“Both sides have told us that they have certain thoughts on a cease-fire. We will talk to the two sides and see whether there is any common ground,” a senior Turkish Foreign Ministry official told AFP.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, however, said the proposals were “not credible.”
Britain said it was not pursuing “an exit strategy for Gadhafi” but a “genuine cease-fire.”

“We have been very clear throughout about what the next step should be and that needs to be a genuine cease-fire and an end to violence,” a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said.
Cameron himself made a surprise visit to the southern Italian Gioia del Colle base hosting British jets enforcing the no-fly zone, and announced four more Tornado warplanes for the Libya mission.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in London earlier Monday that the first meeting of the international contact group on Libya will take place next week in the Qatari capital Doha.
Rebels said Monday Gadhafi’s troops had attacked an oil field in the south that the insurgents hope to use to fund their month-old revolt.

Libya frees Al-Jazeera reporter, 3 others held

DUBAI: The Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera says that one of the network’s four reporters who were captured in Libya last month by security forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has been released.
Three others remain held.
In a statement emailed to the AP Monday, Al-Jazeera said the journalist who has been released is Lotfi al-Massoudi of Tunisia.
The four journalists from the Qatar-based network were captured in western Libya 27 days ago, the network’s statement adds.

The three who are still being held in Libya are: Ahmad Vall Ouldeddin of Mauritania, Ammar al-Hamdan of Norway and Kamel al-Tallou of Britain.
While the network staff were “glad to see an end to the ordeal” of Massoudi, the statement called for an “immediate release” of his three colleagues. – AP