Epress.am News from Armenia
Days after the death of Osama bin Laden demonstrated the reach of US military power, Western and Arab foreign ministers head to Rome to hear out a Turkish plan to end a conflict in Libya that has killed thousands and driven crude oil prices to a 2 1/2-year high, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.
Italy, reliant on Libya for a quarter of its crude oil, will host the second meeting of the 22-nation Libya Contact Group. The meeting comes amid signs of growing frustration in the alliance as the seven-week NATO air campaign has been unable to stop Muammar Qaddafi’s military attacks seeking to crush a popular revolt that began in mid-February.
On the eve of the meeting, Turkey has aligned itself more tightly with Western allies and toughened its language against Qaddafi. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured), seeking to take center stage as broker of a new ceasefire settlement, has shifted from calls for a peaceful transition to demanding the Libyan dictator step down “immediately.”
“What needs to happen now is for Qaddafi to immediately withdraw from power and to bring to pass his historical, human and moral responsibility,” Erdogan said yesterday in Istanbul. Declining to disclose plan details, Erdogan said the Islamic world shouldn’t be linked to “tears, bloodshed and autocracy.”