Foreign Minister Alain Juppé of France said that Libyan leader Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi could remain in Libya so long as he completely gave up power as part of a larger political deal, including a cease-fire, on the future of the country.
President Nicolas Sarkozy met with rebel leaders from the Libyan port city of Misurata, who were seeking further aid and arms for their fight to oust Colonel Qaddafi. Sarkozy was publicly noncommittal on the request, but one of the rebels, Suleiman Fortia, said later that France had been helpful “in many domains” and that it could help them get weapons from Arab countries.
Juppé said that countries leading the fight against Colonel Qaddafi were discussing options for a political settlement. “One of the scenarios effectively envisaged is that he stays in Libya on one condition, which I repeat: that he very clearly steps aside from Libyan political life,” Juppé said on the French television channel LCI. “A cease-fire comes about by a formal and clear commitment by Qaddafi to give up his civil and military responsibilities.”
In Washington, an Obama administration spokesman did not disagree with Juppé’s remarks on Qaddafi. “He needs to remove himself from power, and then it’s up to the Libyan people to decide,” the spokesman, Jay Carney, told reporters when asked about the French position.
Western officials who met in Istanbul recently agreed that they must devise a set of negotiating principles. They have agreed that military pressure will be maintained until Qaddafi agrees to a cease-fire and to give up all power. Then some form of national reconciliation government should be established to create a new Libyan leadership, which is supposed to be responsible for what happens next to Qaddafi.
The colonel’s calculations are complicated by a warrant for his arrest on war-crimes charges issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Some members of the anti-Qaddafi coalition are more willing than others for the colonel and his family to remain in Libya, but the colonel is also bound to see the circumstances of the former Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, as a warning. Mubarak gave up all power, but was later arrested, with his sons, by the transitional, military-led government. The Misurata delegation— Fortia, who is the city’s representative on the rebel National Transitional Council; three men described as rebel military leaders in the city, General Ramadan Zarmuh, Colonel Ahmed Hashem, Colonel Brahim Betal Mal, and two other members of Misurata’s “city council”— said that Sarkozy had been supportive. “To get help, there must be coordination,” Fortia said later at a news conference. “France helps us in many domains.”
The members of the delegation said that, in Misurata alone, more than 1,500 people had been killed and five thousand had been wounded since the war began.
The Misurata group described Tripoli as “a surrounded city, and there are revolutionaries inside the city.” Fortia added, “We’re 150 kilometers away from Tripoli, and with a little bit of help from some friends, we will be in Tripoli very soon.”
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