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A street artist paints a caricature of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in the rebel-held town of Benghazi AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev
Libya
Gaddafi refuses to meet rebels amid plans to remove him from Libyan leadership
The UN is proposing a ceasefire in Libya, and the establishment of an authority led jointly by the government and rebels but without Gaddafi or his sons.
THE LIBYAN LEADER Muammar Gaddafi says he won’t attend talks with rebels as he holds onto power amid efforts to end the conflict in the country.
Meanwhile it’s reported that an authority consisting jointly of the government and rebels, but excluding Gaddafi and his sons, has been suggested as a political solution to the Libyan conflict, reports Reuters.
The creation of the new authority would mean that Gaddafi would no longer have control of the security forces. News of the proposed plan comes after suggestions by the French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe who said earlier this week that Gaddafi may be allowed to stay in Libya, as long as he “steps aside from Libya’s political life”.
However Al Jazeera reports that Gaddafi has told a crowd of supporters in his home city of Sirte that he will not hold talks with rebels:
There will be no talks between me and them until Judgement Day.
A top rebel official has claimed that Gaddafi’s troops have boobytrapped petroleum installations in the strategic oil port of Brega so they can be blown up if his regime loses the town.
Mahmoud Jibril, the rebels’ diplomatic chief, also said Gaddafi’s forces have boobytrapped oil fields. He did not state which fields. While Brega is a key oil processing and shipment hub, the fields that feed it lie far to the south in the Libyan desert.
“Unfortunately, Brega is a big minefield right now,” Jibril told reporters after meeting with Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez. “We discovered that they planted mines all over the place. Even some oil establishments, some oil fields, have been full of bombs, explosives.”
Rebels hold most of eastern Libya, but their push to seize Brega since last week unraveled Tuesday when 27 rebels were killed in shelling by Gaddafi’s troops.
Their forces have since pulled back from the city amid hopes that Gaddafi’s forces will surrender, and Jibril said rebel fighters “are circulating Brega from all fronts right now.” Rebel commanders have said mine fields laid by Gaddafi’s troops have hampered their advance.
Could Gaddafi step down from power but remain in Libya?>
- Additional reporting by AP
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