Global General

Gadhafi can stay in Libya if he quits: rebel chief

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-07-04 10:01

Stockpiles of ordnance inside a Gadhafi ammunition bunker which is now controlled by rebels are seen approximately 40 kms (25 miles) southeast of Zintan June 29, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

Deadlock

The conflict in Libya is close to deadlock, with rebels on three fronts unable to make a decisive advance towards the Libyan capital and growing strains inside NATO about the cost of the operation and the lack of a military breakthrough.

Previous attempts to negotiate a peace deal have foundered, but some analysts say Gadhafi's entourage -- if perhaps not the Libyan leader himself -- may look for a way out as air strikes and sanctions narrow their options.

Gadhafi's daughter Aisha said last week her father would be prepared to cut a deal with the rebels though he would not leave the country.

But his son, Saif al-Islam, rejected calls for his father to quit Libya as the price of peace.

"To tell my father to leave the country, it's a joke. We will never surrender. We will fight. It's our country," he told French TV channel TF1.

"We have to fight for our country and you are going to be legitimate targets for us," he said of Western powers that have led air strikes against Libyan government forces.

A combination photo shows Saif al-Islam (L) during an interview with Reuters in Tripoli March 10, 2011, and his father Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi in Damascus March 29, 2008. [Photo/Agencies]

In an address to supporters on Friday, Gadhafi urged NATO to halt its bombing campaign or risk seeing Libyan fighters descend on Europe "like a swarm of locusts or bees".

Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi - part of a hardline camp which has clashed with Saif al-Islam on policy in the past - said the Libyan people did not want Gadhafi to go.

"You see everyone, from small children to old men, all of them love Muammar Gadhafi, they all love him," he told Al-Arabiya television channel when asked if the Libyan leader would step down.

Libya's Jana news agency said on Sunday Gadhafi had sent a message to German Chancellor Angela Merkel to mark Germany taking over the leadership of the U.N. Security Council, without giving further details. Germany said it had no knowledge of any such a letter.