Epress.am News from Armenia
US government officials met with representatives from Libya’s embattled regime to deliver the message that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi must leave power, a State Department spokesperson said, reports the National Journal.
Libyan government spokesperson Moussa Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli that officials from both countries held face-to-face talks in Tunisia on Saturday to improve the strained relations between them. By contrast, a State Department spokesperson said that the United States, which is currently playing a supporting role in the NATO mission to bomb Gaddafi’s ground forces and command-and-control centers, participated in the meetings to “deliver a clear and firm message that the only way to move forward is for Gaddafi to step down.”
“This was not a negotiation. It was the delivery of a message. The message was simple and unambiguous, and the same message we deliver in public: Gaddafi must leave power so that a new political process can begin that reflects the will and aspirations of the Libyan people,” the spokesperson said via e-mail, declining to say when or where the meetings took place.
US officials attending the meeting included Gene Cretz, US ambassador to Libya; Jeff Feltman, assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs; and Derek Chollet, a principal deputy director for policy planning at State.
Over a period of time, the US received calls from senior Libyan officials who believed that the US might support a future for Libya that includes Gaddafi, a State Department official said. After the meetings, the official said, “they’ve received our message that we support the [United Nations] channel and there will be no US channel.”
The Obama administration has for months walked a cautious line on Libya, arguing that Gaddafi had lost all legitimacy and needed to step down but that the mission in Libya is not meant to remove him from power. In a major sign of support for Libya’s opposition last week, the United States recognized Libya’s Transitional National Council, headquartered in the eastern city of Benghazi, as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people—a move that opens the door to funneling some of the approximately $34 billion in Gaddafi-related funds the US froze in February to the insurgents.
The Libyan spokesperson called the meetings a “first step,” and added that the regime wants to “to take further steps” to avoid being “stuck in the past.”
The United States has no plans to meet again, the State spokesperson said, “because the message has been delivered.”
“In the aftermath of [the meeting of international partners in] Istanbul, we decided to deliver directly and unequivocally the views of the international community and our combined steadfast resolve to see this crisis through to the end,” the spokesperson said.