Qaddafi Cracks Down on Tripoli as Sarkozy Calls for Departure
2011-02-25 15:24:02.756 GMT
(See EXTRA for more news on the regional turmoil.)
By Zainab Fattah, Gregory Viscusi and Benjamin Harvey
Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Muammar Qaddafi tried to tighten his
grip on Tripoli as French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on
him to resign amid reports that worshippers were being shot as
they left mosques after Friday prayers.
Several people were killed in the capital when security
forces loyal to Qaddafi fired on protesters after worship, Al
Arabiya television said, citing at least three eyewitnesses.
With governments struggling to get their citizens out of the
city, the U.K. said the route to Tripoli airport is no longer
safe. U.S. Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman called on
the Obama administration to back the rebels with weapons.
"France's position is clear, Mr. Qaddafi must go," Sarkozy
said at a news conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gul in
Ankara today. Sarkozy, the first leader of a major power to call
openly for Qaddafi's resignation, said intervention was not a
good option.
The prospect of civil war in North Africa's biggest oil
producer has pushed crude prices to a 2 1/2-year high, and led
to calls for intervention to stop the worst violence yet seen in
two months of spreading unrest across the Middle East and North
Africa. France and the U.K. will submit a plan for an arms
embargo and other sanctions against Libya at a meeting of the
United Nations Security Council today.
Qaddafi's regime is showing no signs of backing down.
Forces loyal to him today targeted people in Tripoli's Friday
market and in its Fashloom and Janzour areas, Al Arabiya said.
'Live and Die'
"We have Plan A, Plan B and Plan C," Saif al-Islam
Qaddafi, the leader's son, told CNN-Turk television in an
interview from Tripoli. "Plan A is to live and die in Libya.
Plan B is to live and die in Libya. Plan C is to live and die in
Libya."
The eastern coastline stayed under the control of Qaddafi
opponents, who include defecting army units.
Oil headed for its biggest weekly gain in two years on
concern the turmoil that has cut Libya's output may spread to
other parts of the region. Crude for April delivery gained as
much as $1.92 to $99.20 a barrel in electronic trading on the
New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $96.60 a barrel at 1:42
p.m. London time. As many as 1 million barrels of the country's
daily output may have been stopped, according to a Feb. 23
estimate from Barclays Capital.
The production cuts were the first instance of crude
supplies being reduced by civil unrest in the region, where the
Egyptian and Tunisian presidents have been toppled.
Central Squares
Protesters surged into central squares across the Arab
world today to demand more rights two weeks after the ouster of
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Demonstrations took place in
Yemen, Jordan, Tunisia, Egypt and Iraq, with protesters in each
nation demanding more freedoms and more accountable governments.
Foreign leaders are trying to get their citizens out of
Tripoli as Qaddafi digs in. The security situation at Tripoli
airport was "deteriorating" and the journey there was
"becoming more precarious," the U.K. Foreign Office said in a
statement.
A U.S.-chartered ship left Tripoli for Malta today with
more than 300 passengers, more than half of them Americans, the
State Department said. The departure had been delayed by storms.
The U.K. reported evacuating 350 British nationals and
citizens of 25 other countries yesterday aboard planes and a
British frigate. Turkey has sent passenger ferries and a
military ship, and China chartered four passenger ships from
Greece and Malta and 100 buses from Egypt to move 4,600 of an
estimated 30,000 nationals in Libya.
Asset Seizures
"Britain, through the United Nations, is pressing for
asset seizures, for travel bans, for sanctions, for all of those
things we can do to hold those people to account, including
investigating for potential crimes against humanity," Prime
Minister David Cameron told reporters in London today.
French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, speaking in
an interview on France Info radio, said the sanctions proposal
doesn't mention a no-fly zone over Libya, though "it's not
ruled out in the future." The North Atlantic Treaty
Organization was due to discuss the conflict in a meeting of
ambassadors at NATO headquarters in Brussels today.
There's "little chance" of military action by the
countries that would be capable of it, including the U.S., said
Jan Techau, an analyst at the NATO Defense College in Rome, in a
phone interview. "Once you intervene, you own the place. Who
do you back? Who are the warring factions? And how do you get
out? The fog of war is extremely dangerous."
'A Massacre'
McCain and Lieberman, speaking at a press conference in
Jerusalem today, urged NATO countries to impose a no-fly zone on
Libyan airbases to prevent air attacks on the anti-Qaddafi
forces. Lieberman said they should get "military support to
complete the change of leadership."
Switzerland yesterday froze the assets of Qaddafi and his
entourage for three years. U.K. officials have identified
billions of pounds in assets held by Qaddafi in British banks
and are planning to freeze them, the Daily Telegraph reported,
citing an unidentified official with knowledge of the matter.
Qaddafi told state television yesterday that "drugged
kids" were responsible for the uprising, under incitement by
foreigners including al-Qaeda. Ambassadors and senior officials
from the judiciary have abandoned the regime, and one of the
leader's cousins and confidantes, Ahmed Qaddaf al-Dam, defected
to Egypt.
Libya, with a population of about 6.3 million, normally
pumps 1.6 million barrels of oil a day, selling most of it to
Europe, according to Bloomberg estimates. That's about 1.8
percent of world supply.
For Related News and Information:
For news and data related to the regional crisis: MET <GO>
Top Middle East news: TOP MIDEAST <GO>
Top African news: TOP AFR <GO>
--With assistance from Alaa Shahine, Mariam Fam and Ola Galal in
Cairo, Eddie Buckle in London, Flavia Krause-Jackson in Rome,
Gregory Viscusi in Paris, Calev Ben-David and Gwen Ackerman in
Jerusalem, Leigh Baldwin in Zurich and John Simpson in Toronto.
Editors: Heather Langan, John Fraher.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Benjamin Harvey in Istanbul at +90-312-438-8990 or
bharvey11@bloomberg.net;
Zainab Fattah in Dubai at +971-4-364-1027 or
zfattah@bloomberg.net;
Maram Mazen in Cairo at +20-22-7330-7849 or
mmazen@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andrew J. Barden at +1-613-667-4804 or
barden@bloomberg.net
2011-02-25 15:24:02.756 GMT
(See EXTRA for more news on the regional turmoil.)
By Zainab Fattah, Gregory Viscusi and Benjamin Harvey
Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Muammar Qaddafi tried to tighten his
grip on Tripoli as French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on
him to resign amid reports that worshippers were being shot as
they left mosques after Friday prayers.
Several people were killed in the capital when security
forces loyal to Qaddafi fired on protesters after worship, Al
Arabiya television said, citing at least three eyewitnesses.
With governments struggling to get their citizens out of the
city, the U.K. said the route to Tripoli airport is no longer
safe. U.S. Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman called on
the Obama administration to back the rebels with weapons.
"France's position is clear, Mr. Qaddafi must go," Sarkozy
said at a news conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gul in
Ankara today. Sarkozy, the first leader of a major power to call
openly for Qaddafi's resignation, said intervention was not a
good option.
The prospect of civil war in North Africa's biggest oil
producer has pushed crude prices to a 2 1/2-year high, and led
to calls for intervention to stop the worst violence yet seen in
two months of spreading unrest across the Middle East and North
Africa. France and the U.K. will submit a plan for an arms
embargo and other sanctions against Libya at a meeting of the
United Nations Security Council today.
Qaddafi's regime is showing no signs of backing down.
Forces loyal to him today targeted people in Tripoli's Friday
market and in its Fashloom and Janzour areas, Al Arabiya said.
'Live and Die'
"We have Plan A, Plan B and Plan C," Saif al-Islam
Qaddafi, the leader's son, told CNN-Turk television in an
interview from Tripoli. "Plan A is to live and die in Libya.
Plan B is to live and die in Libya. Plan C is to live and die in
Libya."
The eastern coastline stayed under the control of Qaddafi
opponents, who include defecting army units.
Oil headed for its biggest weekly gain in two years on
concern the turmoil that has cut Libya's output may spread to
other parts of the region. Crude for April delivery gained as
much as $1.92 to $99.20 a barrel in electronic trading on the
New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $96.60 a barrel at 1:42
p.m. London time. As many as 1 million barrels of the country's
daily output may have been stopped, according to a Feb. 23
estimate from Barclays Capital.
The production cuts were the first instance of crude
supplies being reduced by civil unrest in the region, where the
Egyptian and Tunisian presidents have been toppled.
Central Squares
Protesters surged into central squares across the Arab
world today to demand more rights two weeks after the ouster of
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Demonstrations took place in
Yemen, Jordan, Tunisia, Egypt and Iraq, with protesters in each
nation demanding more freedoms and more accountable governments.
Foreign leaders are trying to get their citizens out of
Tripoli as Qaddafi digs in. The security situation at Tripoli
airport was "deteriorating" and the journey there was
"becoming more precarious," the U.K. Foreign Office said in a
statement.
A U.S.-chartered ship left Tripoli for Malta today with
more than 300 passengers, more than half of them Americans, the
State Department said. The departure had been delayed by storms.
The U.K. reported evacuating 350 British nationals and
citizens of 25 other countries yesterday aboard planes and a
British frigate. Turkey has sent passenger ferries and a
military ship, and China chartered four passenger ships from
Greece and Malta and 100 buses from Egypt to move 4,600 of an
estimated 30,000 nationals in Libya.
Asset Seizures
"Britain, through the United Nations, is pressing for
asset seizures, for travel bans, for sanctions, for all of those
things we can do to hold those people to account, including
investigating for potential crimes against humanity," Prime
Minister David Cameron told reporters in London today.
French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, speaking in
an interview on France Info radio, said the sanctions proposal
doesn't mention a no-fly zone over Libya, though "it's not
ruled out in the future." The North Atlantic Treaty
Organization was due to discuss the conflict in a meeting of
ambassadors at NATO headquarters in Brussels today.
There's "little chance" of military action by the
countries that would be capable of it, including the U.S., said
Jan Techau, an analyst at the NATO Defense College in Rome, in a
phone interview. "Once you intervene, you own the place. Who
do you back? Who are the warring factions? And how do you get
out? The fog of war is extremely dangerous."
'A Massacre'
McCain and Lieberman, speaking at a press conference in
Jerusalem today, urged NATO countries to impose a no-fly zone on
Libyan airbases to prevent air attacks on the anti-Qaddafi
forces. Lieberman said they should get "military support to
complete the change of leadership."
Switzerland yesterday froze the assets of Qaddafi and his
entourage for three years. U.K. officials have identified
billions of pounds in assets held by Qaddafi in British banks
and are planning to freeze them, the Daily Telegraph reported,
citing an unidentified official with knowledge of the matter.
Qaddafi told state television yesterday that "drugged
kids" were responsible for the uprising, under incitement by
foreigners including al-Qaeda. Ambassadors and senior officials
from the judiciary have abandoned the regime, and one of the
leader's cousins and confidantes, Ahmed Qaddaf al-Dam, defected
to Egypt.
Libya, with a population of about 6.3 million, normally
pumps 1.6 million barrels of oil a day, selling most of it to
Europe, according to Bloomberg estimates. That's about 1.8
percent of world supply.
For Related News and Information:
For news and data related to the regional crisis: MET <GO>
Top Middle East news: TOP MIDEAST <GO>
Top African news: TOP AFR <GO>
--With assistance from Alaa Shahine, Mariam Fam and Ola Galal in
Cairo, Eddie Buckle in London, Flavia Krause-Jackson in Rome,
Gregory Viscusi in Paris, Calev Ben-David and Gwen Ackerman in
Jerusalem, Leigh Baldwin in Zurich and John Simpson in Toronto.
Editors: Heather Langan, John Fraher.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Benjamin Harvey in Istanbul at +90-312-438-8990 or
bharvey11@bloomberg.net;
Zainab Fattah in Dubai at +971-4-364-1027 or
zfattah@bloomberg.net;
Maram Mazen in Cairo at +20-22-7330-7849 or
mmazen@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andrew J. Barden at +1-613-667-4804 or
barden@bloomberg.net
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