Diplomatic efforts heat up; bombs hit Tripoli

Associated Press

TRIPOLI, Libya

Renewed diplomatic efforts to halt Libya’s civil war appeared to be gaining momentum Thursday as thunderous NATO airstrikes once again hammered Moammar Gadhafi’s stronghold of Tripoli.

Officials in the capital say they are open to international efforts that would bring an end to four months of fighting between forces loyal to the longtime leader and rebels who control the eastern third of the country along with pockets in the west.

But they insist that Gadhafi will not bow to international pressure to push him aside.

“We don’t accept anything that may be done against him. He is a red line in our discussions,” Prime Minister al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi said. Any deal that would partition the country is unacceptable, he added.

Al-Mahmoudi told reporters that the Libyan government has had a number of “preliminary meetings” with officials based in the eastern rebel-held city of Benghazi. He said the talks took place abroad, including in Egypt, Tunisia and Norway, but he did not provide specifics.

One of Gadhafi’s sons told an Italian newspaper that though his father would not seek exile, elections under international supervision could offer a way out. A vote could be organized within three months, he said.

The son, Seif al-Islam, told Corriere della Sera that Gadhafi would step aside if he lost, which the son said was unlikely. He acknowledged, however, that “my father’s regime as it developed since 1969 is dead.”

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland rejected the idea of elections in Libya.

“It’s a little late for any proposals by Gadhafi and his circles for democratic change,” she said Thursday. “It’s time for him to go.”

Gadhafi’s son, once groomed to succeed the elder Gadhafi, has served as one of his main spokesmen during the conflict. Like Gadhafi himself, he has been heard from rarely in recent weeks.

Russia’s envoy to Libya met with senior government leaders in Tripoli — but apparently not Gadhafi himself — hours after NATO warplanes pounded the area near the leader’s Bab al-Aziziya compound.

Russian envoy Mikhail Margelov met in Tripoli with al-Mahmoudi and Foreign Minister Abdul-Ati al-Obeidi.

Last week, Margelov visited the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi and said that Gadhafi has lost his legitimacy. However, the envoy also said NATO airstrikes are not a solution to Libya’s violent stalemate.