France risked opening a significant split within Nato over the war in Libya yesterday by calling for negotiations with Colonel Gaddafi and confirming it was "passing messages" to his regime.
France confirmed it was "passing messages" to Col Muammar Gaddafi's regime. Photo: REUTERS
By Ruth Sherlock, in Zintan and Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent
6:20PM BST 11 Jul 2011
109 Comments
Signalling dismay at the slow progress of attempts to drive Col. Gaddafi from power, the French defence minister, Gerard Longuet, said it was time to “get round the table”.
Although the position of NATO and the rebel Transitional National Council (TNC) has always been that there can be no negotiations while Col Gaddafi remains in power, Mr Longuet said he could remain “in a different room in his palace, with a different title”.
“We have asked them to speak to each other,” Mr Longuet said of the two sides in an interview on French television. “The position of the TNC is very far from other positions.”
His interview triggered a swift response from Washington. “The Libyan people will be the ones to decide how this transition takes place, but we stand firm in our belief that Gaddafi cannot remain in power,” the State Department said, indicating it had not changed its position.
One senior British official insisted there was “no daylight” between the positions of the two allies, who drove the initial decision to take military action against Libya.
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But a Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that the British position remained that Col Gaddafi had to go before a ceasefire could be called and negotiations begun.
There was also a defiant reponse from rebel forces. “The only political solution is that Gaddafi and his family leave power,” said Hamed Amer Hagheg, a senior commander at the western front in the Nafusa mountains.
“We appreciate (President) Sarkozy’s position as he supported the Libyans.
But it is the Libyans who started the uprising, not the French. Even without his help we will continue to pursue Gaddafi.”
The battle for Libya has turned into a war of attrition, despite early optimism when they began in March that aerial attacks and civilian uprisings would quickly drive the regime from power.
Last week’s capture of a regime-held village on the south-western front, Qawalish, brought rebels close to the town of Garyan, 60 miles from the capital, a major weapons supply base and strategically situated on Libya’s main north-south road. But at the weekend, Gaddafi forces struck back with mortars and BM21 Grad rockets.
The Italian foreign minister, Francesco Frattini, has already called for negotiations, while Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, in a separate interview also suggested Col Gaddafi could stay in power while negotiations took place.
“The question is not to know whether he must leave, but when and how,” he said, adding that he had no answer to the question of whether he could stay in Libya if he stood down, or would be allowed to seek refuge elsewhere.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the leader’s son, claimed a special envoy had met President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was clear that France wanted a new transitional government in Libya.
He said that President Sarkozy had said: “We created the TNC and without France’s backing, money and weapons, it would not exist.”
A French foreign ministry spokesman denied there were “direct negotiations” with the regime but confirmed: “We pass it messages in liaison with the TNC and our allies.”
A senior western diplomat said France was “sending a message” to the rebels that the conflict had a time limit. Currently, NATO’s operational mandate is due to expire at the end of September.
The source added: “There is general recognition among western diplomats that the structure of the state existing in the western part of the country should not be completely disregarded in the event of a quick collapse of the Gaddafi regime.”
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Showing 25 of 109 comments
KinSun Lee
15 minutes agoYou can't just walk away. What about the issue of compensation for Libyans and clean up of the mess?
After all the France, Britain, the US and NATO bombed out all the infrastructure and killed more than 40% of the governement security personnel. On top of that they used a lot of depleted uranium in their bombing.
Rogoraeck
Today 04:14 AMRecommended by
1 person So..... The rag trader from Budapest, try to extricate himself from the corner he had painted in??
russell61
Today 03:50 AMRecommended by
3 people...what does everyone expect, the Ffrench have always been duplitious!
manacaster
Today 02:42 AMwww.khaleejtimes.com
search' sarkozy lashes at US '
Jonathan Smythe
Today 02:31 AMRecommended by
5 peopleNATO has no business in Africa. It no longer even has a reason to exist. We are just providing foot soldiers for the empire, which is imploding now anyway.
cybereality
Today 02:27 AMI guess I should see how you Britts are feeling before I chime in. But here goes. The media, and not the Telegraph - they have been an oasis of truth in the sea of lies during this miss adventure, but the major media has lied early and often regarding who the rebels were and what was going on. By tomorrow the French and the Italians will be off this Mission and its right as rain if you do not go this alone. I know we are going to have to wait for the movie, but apparently there is a disc! - so before you posture and postulate, lets see what the headlines are tomorrow. After all, they did set up a bank (real bank) in Benghazi, so I imagine its "Mission Accomplished." - (remember Libyans this bank is like Facebook - "I am not such a dictator that I would shut down Facebook, I will merely arrest anyone that logs on." - MG.)
Guest
Today 02:26 AMRecommended by
4 peopleAll the NATO rats are desperately jumping out of this sinking disaster; CIArkozy, Berlusconi, the Norwegians, the Dutch - everybody is pulling out.
CIArkozy and his rat Bernard Henry Levy should be arrested for this criminal adventure and for arming Al Qaeda rebels to attack the people of Tripoli.
This has been one of the most blatantly illegal and idiotic wars in the history of the NATO crime club.
Unfortunately the Chinese will use this illegal oil grab against Libya to justify future Chinese invasions and confiscations of resources. The west has completely lost the moral high ground with this illegal attack .
cybereality
Today 03:00 AMoh John you did have to bring up the obvious didn't you, I'm still drinking my champagne...
devnull1
Today 01:15 AMRecommended by
7 peopleWell, if the duplicitous French are doing this, what do you think the Italians are up to?
Jonathan Smythe
Today 02:30 AMRecommended by
1 person The French duplicitous? More mindless racism. France was brave enough to stay out of the illagal occupation of France and at least it showing some sense after being stupidly involved in the attack on Libya.
It is Britain which is duplicitous. We claimed to be protecting civilians but were really pushing for regime change, just as Bliar lied about the WMD in Iraq.
As for Berlusconi, nothing good can ever be expected of that mobster.
mar23
Today 01:24 AMRecommended by
6 peoplethe la cosa nostra leader Berlusconi is already doing what Italian mobsters are good at (RATTING,AND FLIPPING SIDES!
just three days ago he cast all of the blame in Libya on (not making this up) ENGLAND AND FRANCE!
he said he was against this bombing from the beginning!
mar23
Today 12:47 AMRecommended by
5 peoplewow! and just to show you folks in England that our american govt knows that they lied to the world and this country by illegally bombing Lybia,there has been NO MENTION OF ANY OF THIS INI THE AMERICAN MEDIA!!
CNN has not reported ANYTHING on Lybia over the past THREE days! and NONE of the local or regional sites have posted anything either.
this is proof that there is NO such thing as free and fair media here in america! our news sites are ALL govt propoganda spin machines! shame on all of them,but they have no shame!
manacaster
Today 02:38 AMAny five year old can find simular articles from just a few months ago, by searching the compendium of all human knowledge know as the internet.
manacaster
Today 02:28 AMNo this is not American news.
www.khaleejtimes.com--
type in Sarkozy lashes at US
manacaster
Today 02:12 AMYou are aware that under a UN mandate ALL NATO MEMBERS voted to go into Libya are you not? Not to mention America was dragged into this one, where it has taken a supportive role. All you have shown is a flagrant lack of intelligence. It was stated from the onset that a no fly zone would involve bombing of ground targets. Yet european NATO members insisted on calling on America.
cybereality
Today 02:33 AMRecommended by
1 person It was our 300 Libyan CIA agents, it was our satellites, it was our blue-print and it was our ex-president that delivered the news to our current president so ...there!
manacaster
Today 02:52 AMSeems to be more likely that you're nothing more then a conspiratorial nutcase, an inept one at that, who doesn't posseses even the slightest acumen to do a basic internet search. Stop trying to drive a wedge between the great peoples of Britain and the US.
cybereality
Today 03:07 AMRecommended by
1 person what is wrong with you? we are pulling out of this tomorrow. - and I work for you... nut job. I just want you to save face and blend into the mist like the rest of NATO over this... its over.
...there was never going to be a 4.
cybereality
Today 03:04 AMCaught you! CIA right or HMS whatever you are over there. Your attack is straight out of the school of the Americas. Sadly my nephew is a blue ribbon graduate, and an excellent chess player too," it doesn't matter how Charlie got the bread, it only matters that he got it!" - ok no more disc. - until the book..
truthplease
Today 01:21 AMRecommended by
5 peoplePerhaps all the politicians and government lackeys over your way have been cosying up to the media, and asking them to promote the war on Libya!
You've probably heard of our media problems over here. Perhaps - just perhaps - we may now get a genuine free press, so we get both sides of the story, not just the rebel's and NATO's propaganda.
Perhaps you could find out if Fox journalists are doing a little bit of phone hacking - that may do the trick!
mar23
Today 01:44 AMRecommended by
1 person truthplease....
as bad as your media is, it is still more honest than america's! at least your journalist have the balls to attempt to hack into phone calls and records to find the truth about your leaders.
here in america? you could give them a GPS and a road map to the truth,but if that truth is going to expose one of our politicians or govt officials,then WALLA!
the GPS suddenly will play a HALO video game, and the road map will all of a sudden lead you to a dead end street in say, COMPTON CALIFORNIA! which is a no mans land!
wanderingone
Today 12:33 AMRecommended by
4 people“The Libyan people will be the ones to decide how this transition takes place, but we stand firm in our belief that Gaddafi cannot remain in power,” the State Department said.
I take it, then, that it's the "Libyan people" who are paying for all those expensive fireworks we're dropping on the Libyan desert. Perhaps it's the "Libyan people" who are paying our Air Force's salary to fly the planes (which, of course, the "Libyan people" are paying to fuel and maintain).
There are prats in every walk of life in every country but things apparently the American State Department breeds 'em bigger than anywhere else.
cybereality
Today 02:44 AMand then later Obama was quoted as saying..."he will have to go eventually." - come on guys...what WOULD the world be like without Captain Hook? - believe me there are babysitters who would volunteer for the job if you are going to be nervous about it...
wanderingone
Today 02:53 AMRecommended by
1 person Do you have any idea how that.......... whatever-it-is relates to my comment?
If so, do enlighten me.
cybereality
Today 03:09 AMthey skipped the reply placement somehow - no not you... sorry.. either they or I slipped... going now...
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