Pressure on Gaddafi rises
GADDAFI “must go immediately”, David Cameron and French president Nicolas Sarkozy declared yesterday in a joint statement, adding: “We call on all his followers to leave him before it is too late.”
The statement came a day before 40 foreign ministers meet for a summit in London today to discuss the Libyan war.
Cameron and Sarkozy, who have agreed to hand military control of the mission to Nato, also called on Libyans to initiate a “transition process”.
“This could include the Interim National Transitional Council, the pioneering role of which we recognise,” they said. The transitional council is a body set up by rebels as a potential precursor to a new government. Cameron confirmed on Sunday that the UK?is now in formal contact with the council.
He also said that Britain’s preferred option is for Gaddafi to face justice rather than go into exile.
The Ministry of Defence said yesterday that British tornado planes have successfully bombed several of Gaddafi’s munitions bunkers in the south of the country, while the US confirmed that it has frozen $33bn’s worth of Libyan assets so far.