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Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Ben Curtis/AP/Press Association Images
Libya
France urges Libyan rebels to hold talks with Gaddafi regime
Libya’s opposition council has so far refused to enter negotiations with the old regime until Gaddafi steps down – but France says NATO bombardment will not stop until both sides come to the table.
THE GADDAFI REGIME is in talks with the French government instead of rebel forces within the country, according to the strongman’s son.
Speaking to Algerian newspaper El Khabar, Seif al-Islam Gaddafi said: “The truth is that we are negotiating with France and not with the rebels”.
The French foreign ministry denied that France was in direct negotiations with Gaddafi, with spokesman Bernard Valero saying: “There are no direct negotiations between France and Kadhafi’s regime, but we pass (the regime) messages in liaison with the NTC and our allies”, Al Jazeera reports.
Al-Islam claimed that French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the Libyan emissary that France wanted rebels to enter into discussions with the regime, saying: “We created the (rebel) National Transitional Council and without France’s backing, money and weapons, it would not exist,” AFP reports.
The National Transitional Council (NTC) – the group recently formed by anti-Gaddafi troops to represent Libya – said that it would not enter into discussions with Gaddafi until he abnegated power, and added that it believed Al-Islam was attempting to damage relationships between the NTC and France.
However, France seems keen to bring the Gaddafi regime and the NTC to the negotiation table. French Defence Minister Gérard Longuet said: “We have … asked them to speak to each other. The position of the TNC is very far from other positions. Now, there will be a need to sit around a table.”
Longuet said that the NATO bombardment of Libya would continue until the NCT and the Gaddafi regime entered into discussions – however France also stressed that Gaddafi stepping down from power remains its objective, reports the Telegraph.
“They can now speak to each other because we are showing them that there is no solution with force,” said Longuet.
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