Libyan rebels lay down terms for ceasefire
Opposition offers ceasefire if Gaddafi halts attacks against rebel-held cities but battles rage for Brega and Misrata.
Al Jazeera, 01 Apr 2011 18:57

Libyan rebels will agree to a ceasefire if Muammar Gaddafi pulls his military forces out of opposition-held cities and allows peaceful protests against his regime, according to an opposition leader.

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, head of the opposition's interim governing council based in Benghazi, spoke during a joint press conference on Friday with Abdelilah Al-Khatib, the UN envoy. Al-Khatib is visiting the rebels' de facto stronghold of Benghazi in hopes of reaching a political solution to the crisis embroiling the North African nation.

Abdul-Jalil said the rebels' condition for a ceasefire is "that the Gaddafi brigades and forces withdraw from inside and outside Libyan cities to give freedom to the Libyan people to choose and the world will see that they will choose freedom"..[....]

April 1 Al Jazeera Live Blog

...12:20am

Gadadfi's forces have advanced this week - because of the weather, says the US military. Admiral Mike Mullen, the country's top military officer, told senators:

    The biggest problem the last three or four days has been weather.

    We have not been able to see through the weather or get through the weather to be able to do this kind of identification of targets ...

    And that has more than anything else reduced the impact... reduced the effectiveness, and has allowed the regime forces to move back to the east.

Gaddafi's forces had consolidated their positions to the south of Ajdabiya and were expected to renew an offensive towards Benghazi, Mullen said.....

NATO Warns Rebels Against Attacking
By Thom Shanker and Charlie Savage, New York Times, March 31, 2011

WASHINGTON — Members of the NATO alliance have sternly warned the rebels in Libya not to attack civilians as they push against the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, according to senior military and government officials.

As NATO takes over control of airstrikes in Libya, and the Obama administration considers new steps to tip the balance of power there, the coalition has told the rebels that if they endanger civilians, they will not be shielded from possible bombardment by NATO planes and missiles, just as the government’s forces have been punished.

“We’ve been conveying a message to the rebels that we will be compelled to defend civilians, whether pro-Qaddafi or pro-opposition,” said a senior Obama administration official. “We are working very hard behind the scenes with the rebels so we don’t confront a situation where we face a decision to strike the rebels to defend civilians.”

[....]

Oana Lungescu, the senior NATO spokeswoman, emphasized that NATO was taking action because Colonel Qaddafi’s forces were attacking Libyan civilians, including shelling cities with artillery. If the rebels do likewise, she said, the organization will move to stop them, too, because the United Nations Security Council resolution “applies to both sides.”

“Our goal, as mandated by the U.N.,” Ms. Lungescu said, “is to protect civilians against attacks or threats of attack, so those who target civilians will also be targets for our forces, because that resolution will be applied across the board.”

But it is no simple matter to follow that logic [....]

Qaddafi Envoy Visits London as Tensions Mount in Libya
By David D. Kirkpatrick, C.J. Chivers and Alan Cowell,
New York Times, April 1, 2011, "32 minutes ago"

TRIPOLI, Libya — A senior aide to one of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s sons has held secret talks in London with British authorities, a friend of the aide said on Friday, adding to the confusion and anxiety swirling around the Tripoli regime after the defection of a high-ranking minister and the departure of another senior figure to Cairo.

Mohammed Ismail, a senior aide to Seif al-Islam, one of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons, traveled to London for talks with British officials in recent days, the friend said in London on Friday, speaking in return for anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters. The nature and exact timing of the contact was not clear.

In Benghazi on Friday the rebel leadership issued a set of demands for a cease-fire in its battle with the Qaddafi government. Mustapha Abdul Jalil, the head of the rebel National Council, said in a news conference that any cease-fire would have to entail the lifting of the sieges of rebel-held cities like Misurata and Zintan, the removal from those cities of Colonel Qaddafi’s mercenaries and “snipers on the roofs of buildings” and a guarantee of the right to “peaceful protests” for Libyans in the western half of the country.

“At that point, we’ll see how all the Libyan people want freedom,” he said.

The rumors surrounding likely defections became ever murkier when another senior official, Ali Abdussalam el-Treki, who had been reported to have defected, denied doing so. In an interview in Cairo on Friday, Mr. Treki said that while his visit to the Egyptian capital was not an authorized mission, he had not turned against the Qaddafi government.

“There are people who do not want to defect to one side or the other — they just don’t want to be part of this situation continuing," Mr. Treki said. “A lot of Libyans think like me. They think our country should be saved, we have to stop this killing and fighting. All fighting should be stopped.”

He said no one in Tripoli had asked him to arrange a cease-fire, nor was he mediating. He refrained from direct criticism of Colonel Qaddafi.

An official familiar with the talks with Mr. Ismail was emphatic that the British government had not offered any deals...

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