By: Staff Writer
Kevin Frayer / the associated press Protester holds pre-Gadhafi flag during protest to demand Gadhafi�s resignation.
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration cut ties Thursday with the Libyan Embassy and announced high-level meetings with opposition leaders as France became the first nation to recognize the governing council fighting against Moammar Gadhafi's regime.
The moves came as Gadhafi's loyalists threw rebels into a frantic retreat from the strategic oil port of Ras Lanouf Thursday with fierce barrages of tank and artillery fire.
The counteroffensive reversed the opposition's advance toward the capital of Tripoli and now threatens its positions in the east.
As Western powers examined their military options, the U.S. warned a go-it-alone approach in Libya could have unforeseeable and devastating consequences.
"We're looking to see whether there is any willingness in the international community to provide any authorization for further steps," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said. "Absent international authorization, the United States acting alone would be stepping into a situation whose consequences are unforeseeable," Clinton said amid NATO discussions about a possible no-fly zone over Libya.
The trans-Atlantic pressure occurred amid intense diplomatic discussions around the world, with European countries adding financial sanctions to isolate Gadhafi's government.
Speaking at a House budget hearing, Clinton announced the United States is suspending its relationship with Libya's remaining envoys to the country, although the move falls short of severing diplomatic relations.
She said she would meet with Libyan opposition figures when she travels to Egypt and Tunisia next week, marking the highest-level contact between the U.S. and anti-Gadhafi elements controlling most of the eastern part of Libya.
In Libya, hundreds of rebels in cars and trucks mounted with machine-guns sped eastward on the Mediterranean coastal road in a seemingly disorganized flight from Ras Lanouf as an overwhelming force of rockets and shells pounded a hospital, mosque and other buildings in the oil complex. Doctors and staff at the hospital were hastily evacuated along with wounded from fighting the past week.
The rout came even as the opposition made diplomatic gains. France became the first country to recognize the rebels' eastern-based governing council, and an ally of President Nicolas Sarkozy said his government was planning "targeted operations" to defend civilians if the international community approves.
In Tripoli, Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, vowed to retake the eastern half of the country, which has been in opposition hands since early in the three-week-old uprising.
"I have two words to our brothers and sisters in the east: We're coming," he told a cheering crowd of young supporters. The son depicted Libyans in the east as being held "hostage" by terrorists.
Gadhafi's government sent a text message to Tripoli residents, warning imams at mosques against allowing protests after Friday prayers.
-- The Associated Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 11, 2011 A22
No comments:
Post a Comment