Washington, April 08: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has dismissed a plea from Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi for a halt to NATO airstrikes on the North African country.
In a letter to US President Barack Obama, Gaddafi made a personal appeal for an end to the Western air campaign against his forces.
“To serving world peace … friendship between our peoples … and for the sake of economic and security cooperation against terror, you are in a position to keep NATO off the Libyan affair[s] for good,” the Associated Press quoted the letter as saying on Wednesday.
Gaddafi called on Obama to stop his “mistaken action,” and said, “Libya should be left to Libyans within the African Union frame.”
Clinton rebuffed Gaddafi’s appeal for an end to the strikes, stressing that he had to leave Libya.
“His forces need to withdraw from the cities that they have forcibly taken at great violence and human cost. There needs to be a decision made about his departure from power and … his departure from Libya,” Clinton said at a joint press briefing with her Italian counterpart Franco Frattini on Wednesday.
“So I don’t think there is any mystery about what is expected from Mr. Gaddafi at this time. That is an international assessment. And the sooner that occurs and the bloodshed ends, the better it will be for everyone,” she said, adding that Gaddafi “has lost legitimacy.”
Gaddafi’s bloody repression of anti-government protesters has claimed the lives of thousands of people since mid-February.
Last month, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that imposes a no-fly zone over Libya and allows for “all necessary measures” to protect civilians from attacks by Gaddafi’s forces on opposition-controlled towns.
However, scores of civilians have been killed in Western-led aerial and sea attacks on the North African country.
Moreover, the Libyan revolutionaries have also criticized NATO for failing to fulfill its task of protecting civilians against persisting attacks against cities held by popular forces.
——–Agencies