TRIPOLI – A Libyan government spokesman has said that representatives of Muammar Gadafy’s embattled government held face- to-face talks with US officials on repairing ties between the nations.
A US state department official confirmed the meeting took place but said it was only to deliver the message that the Libyan leader must step down and no future meetings were planned.
The meeting came after Friday’s decision by the United States and more than 30 other nations meeting in Istanbul to recognise the eastern-based rebels fighting Col Gadafy’s government as the country’s legitimate representatives, added the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the meeting publicly.
Libyan spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli that the talks were held on Saturday but he refused to say where or which officials took part.
“This is a first step and we want to take further steps,” he said. “We don’t want to be stuck in the past; we want to move forward all the time,” he told reporters in the corridors of the hotel where foreign journalists are required to reside.
He described it as a “a first-step dialogue” to see about repairing relations between the two countries, which he said had been damaged by misinformation.
The US was an active participant in Nato airstrikes against Libyan forces starting on March 19th that were authorised under a UN mandate to protect Libyan civilians from Col Gadafy’s advancing forces.
The US later turned over command of the air campaign to Nato and now plays a largely logistical role in the continuing airstrikes.
The state department official said the purpose of the meeting was to deliver a clear and firm message that the only way forward in Libya is for Col Gadafy to step down.
Fighting continued yesterday around the eastern oil port of Brega. A reporter on the scene witnessed rocket duels between the opposing sides and the thick black smoke of burning oil terminals blanketing the sky.
In Tripoli, Mr Ibrahim claimed that more than 500 rebels had been killed in five days of failed assaults against the strategic town. Rebels, however, have only reported a handful of casualties and maintain that fighting continues in their attempt to take the oil terminal on the front lines of the civil war. – (AP)