Libyan defection speculation grows, rebels battle for Brega - IBNLive.com

PTI | 09:04 PM,Apr 01,2011

Gaddafi's forces have pounded the rebels in the east and besieged Misurata, the last major opposition stronghold in west for weeks amid relentless air strikes by coalition forces.Amid speculation of his regime crumbling, Col Gaddafi has struck a defiant stance, saying he is not the one who should go -- it's Western leaders who have decimated his military with air strikes who should resign immediately. His message was run as a scroll by the state-owned Libyan television.However, Gadhafi's greatest losses this week were not military but political. Many Libyan government figures have resigned since the uprising against Gaddafi's 41-year-old rule began on February 15.Interior minister Abdel Fattah Younis and Justice Minister Jalil have both left, as have numerous ambassadors around the world.New York Times reported from the capital Tripoli that residents had reacted in shock and disbelief at the defection of Koussa and there was increasingly open talk among the public about the possibility of Brother Gaddafi's exit. Though the rebels are in retreat in the east, allied air strikes have led to huge fuel shortages in the city fuelling people's anger, Al-Jazeera reported. It said all eyes where now riveted on Gaddafi's sons and his powerful brother-in-law Abdullah Senussi, a top security adviser. However, opposition leaders said the regime is crumbling from within and likened Gaddafi to a wounded animal."An injured wolf is much more dangerous than a healthy wolf. But we hope the defections continue and I think he will find himself with no one around him," opposition spokesman Mustafa Gheriani said in Benghazi.The US, which was leading the military efforts in Libya last week, has ceded its "substantial role" to NATO. "The substantial role that the United States played at the beginning, because of its unique capacities, has ended, the transition has taken place, in days, not weeks," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters in Washington. He exuded confidence that the Libyan people will be able to decide their future and that US and its partners would be taking measures, separate from the military mission to put the kind of pressure on Gaddafi that needs to be placed on him to isolate him, to help bring him to the conclusion that he can no longer stay in power and he needs to step aside for the good of his people and Libya's future."We are already taking measures that are non-lethal and looking at ways that we can help the opposition through humanitarian assistance and other non-lethal things that we can do to help them," Carney said. The US is meeting with the Libyan opposition, he said, adding that the decision on whether or not assistance would include weapons has not been made. "We haven't ruled it in or out, but it's clearly something that is under consideration," Carney said. The UN Security Council Resolution 1973 authorises all necessary measures to protect Libyan civilians, and obviously the US was a participant in that and continues to be, he said.Meanwhile, UN envoy Abdelilah Al-Khatib who met government officials in Tripoli, today held discussions with rebel leaders in Benghazi to reach a political solution to the crisis.