Friday, 01 July 2011
A general view of supporters of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi during a rally at the green square in Tripoli. (REUTERS photo)
Muammar Qaddafi on Friday urged his supporters to seize the weapons France supplied to rebels in the Nafusa mountains, hours before NATO jets launched a new wave of air strike on the Libyan capital Tripoli.
“March on the jebel (Nafusa) and seize the weapons that the French have supplied. If later you want to pardon them (the rebels), that’s up to you,” the embattled Colonel Qaddafi said in a message played over loudspeakers in central Tripoli.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé said on Friday that this week’s arms drop was meant only to defend peaceful civilians from Colonel Qaddafi’s forces and thus fell in line with existing UN resolutions on the conflict.
“Civilians had been attacked by Qaddafi’s forces and were in an extremely vulnerable situation and that is why medicine, food and also weapons of self-defense were parachuted,” Mr. Juppé said, speaking on France Inter radio.
“It is not a violation of the UN Security Council resolutions” under which France and other allies launched air strikes and imposed embargoes to protect civilians from Colonel Qaddafi, he added.
On a visit to Moscow, Mr. Juppé said France had informed its partners in NATO as well the UN Security Council about its decision to supply arms directly to the rebels in Libya.
“We informed our partners in NATO and the Security Council about these deliveries,” Mr. Juppé told reporters after talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
“We believe that within the frameworks of Resolutions 1970 and 1973 -- and 1970 as a whole -- it is clear that all means are legitimate for protecting peaceful civilians,” Mr. Juppé said.
The first resolution bans all arms deliveries to Libya -- a move Russia backed -- and the second authorizes nations “to take all necessary measures” to help protect civilians against Qaddafi’s forces.
Meanwhile, Colonel Qaddafi vowed anew that his forces would crush NATO, warning the military coalition: “Pull back, you have no chance of defeating this brave (Libyan) people.”
“The Libyans will defeat the Crusader NATO forces,” Mr. Qaddafi said in a speech to mark 100 days of NATO operations.
“Stop your operations otherwise the world will poke fun at you,” he said, adding that NATO strikes were “useless.”
“I advise you to stop your campaign and not to be led by a handful of traitors in Benghazi,” he said in reference to the eastern coastal stronghold of the Libyan rebels.
He also directly addressed Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, “poor” French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron, asking them to “listen to the Libyan people who want peace.”
Colonel Qaddafi, who was speaking from a secret location, invited NATO to “talk to the Libyan people.”
“The people are masters of their own destiny. Discuss with them a solution to the crisis and I will help you,” he said, again addressing leaders of NATO member states.
He also urged loyalists “to march on Misrata and liberate the city inch by inch, without resorting to arms.”
The besieged rebel-held Misrata is Libya’s third-largest city and the rebels’ most significant enclave in western Libya.
“Finish the battle quickly,” Colonel Qaddafi said.
Hours after the broadcast of his speech finished in the Libyan state television, three explosions were heard in the Libyan capital and columns of black smoke were seen rising from the direction of Mr. Qaddafi’s central Bab Al Aziziya compound, a Reuters reporter said.
(Mustapha Ajbaili, a senior editor at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at: Mustapha.ajbaili@mbc.net)
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