OnIslam.net

TRIPOLI - A UN envoy will seek to persuade warring parties in Libya to accept a plan that envisages a ceasefire and a power-sharing government, but with no role for embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi.

"The UN is exerting very serious efforts to create a political process that has two pillars," Abdul Elah al-Khatib, the special UN envoy to Libya, told Reuters on Friday, July 22.

"One is an agreement on a ceasefire and simultaneously an agreement on setting up a mechanism to manage the transitional period."

A European diplomat told Reuters that al-Khatib, a Jordanian senator, would carry the informal proposals to both government and opposition officials, whom he met several times in the recent weeks.

Al-Khatib said he hoped both sides would accept his ideas. But, he did not go into the details of that mechanism.

The opposition has this week declared advances on several front lines in the divided country, but seems unlikely to unseat Gaddafi quickly despite months of backing from NATO air strikes, authorized under a UN resolution to protect civilians.

Analysts say the stalemate has led to intensified diplomatic overtures, with France saying for the first time this week that Gaddafi could stay in Libya as long as he gives up power.

The European diplomat, who declined to be named, said talks had yet to start on Khatib's plan, which foresees an immediate transitional authority made up equally of government and opposition.

The authority would appoint a president, run the security forces and supervise a reconciliation process, leading to elections to an assembly which would write a constitution.

Gaddafi and his sons would be excluded from the authority since the opposition would never accept them, but his prime minister, for example, might have a role, the diplomat said.

The Libyan leader would only accept a transition if his own fate was guaranteed, so he would not immediately be handed to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which wants him tried for crimes against humanity allegedly committed by his forces, he added.

Rejection

But in public, both the Libyan leader and opposition voiced rejection of any talks for a peaceful end to the crisis.

"There will be no talks between me and them until Judgment Day," Gaddafi told a crowd of thousands in his home town of Sirte, referring to the fighters who rose up in February to try to end his 41-year one-man rule.

"They need to talk with the Libyan people ... and they will respond to them," he told the crowd via a remotely delivered audio message.

He has, however, said he welcomes talks with Western powers, with no preconditions.

Washington and Paris have already said they have given his officials a simple message that Gaddafi must go.

The anti-regime fighters also took a similar stance, saying that no one seriously expected talks to end the crisis.

"Impossible," said Colonel Ahmed Bani, a military spokesman for the opposition.

"What do we tell the widower? What do we tell the mother who lost her children ... We can't negotiate, people will devour us."