Italy Recognises Libyan Rebel Council

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Sky News

Italy has turned its back on Colonel Gaddafi's regime, claiming the latest proposals offered by his envoy in Athens are "not credible".

Foreign minister Franco Frattini dismissed the Libyan leader's latest overtures and confirmed Italy now recognised the rebels' interim national council in Benghazi as the "only legitimate interlocutor" in the country.

The comments by Mr Frattini are a significant rejection of Libya's deputy foreign minister Abdelati Obeidi, who travelled to Greece apparently on a diplomatic mission.

Mr Obeidi delivered a message to Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou from Colonel Gaddafi saying that he wants to find a resolution to the crisis and an end to the violence.

Read more: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Video-Libya-Italy-Recognises-Libyan-Rebel-Council-Above-Colonel-Gaddafis-Government/Article/201104115965664?lpos=World_News_First_World_News_Article_Teaser_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15965664_Video%2C_Libya%3A_It

[tuckessee]

1. Italy should stay out of internal Lybian affairs given their past colonial involvement. n/t.

[Davis_X_Machina]

2. Considering how tight Berlusconi was with...

...Qadaffi, this is an interesting development.

[Baclava]

3. Italy is betting the rebels can deliver their oil

[Davis_X_Machina]

4. Quadaffi seemed to have no trouble doing so, I suppose...

...the rebels can as well.

[Baclava]

5. Italy is by far the biggest importer of Libyan crude: 376,000 b/d

I can see their national interest is this...

Libyan Rebels Retake Much of Strategic Oil Town

Associated Press

BREGA, Libya—Libyan rebels on Monday took back much of a strategic oil town that has repeatedly changed hands in weeks of battles with Col. Moammar Gadhafi's forces, while a government envoy met with Turkish officials to discuss a cease-fire and Italy officially recognized the rebels' ruling council as the legitimate representative of the country

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703712504576242133468252252.html

[David__77]

6. The former colonial master speaks...

Libyan people are rightly proud of their anti-Italian struggle.

[Turborama]

7. Gaddafi ceasefire proposal rejected by Italy after contact through Greece

Source: Bloomberg

Bloomberg / Athens April 05, 2011, 0:10 IST

Italy rejected a reported ceasefire proposal by Muammar Gaddafi and said it is recognising Libya’s opposition as the legitimate government as rebels fought loyalists at the oil port of Brega.

“These proposals are not credible,” Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said at a joint news conference today in Rome with Ali al-Isawi, the foreign affairs coordinator of Libya’s Interim National Council. Frattini, who said arming Libyan rebels remained a “last resort,” was reacting to comments made by a Gaddafi envoy in Greece. Frattini said any ceasefire must be imposed on the Libyan leader after past truces were “systematically violated.”

=snip=

Fighting in Libya between rebels and Gaddafi loyalists was centered around Brega, the BBC and Sky News said, citing reporters with rebel troops. “There are clearly more soldiers who have defected from Gaddafi units,” the BBC said, adding that better organised rebel units were going into battle. Intensive fighting continued in the rebel-held western city of Misrata with water and power cut off and food shortages, the BBC reported.

Gaddafi’s acting foreign minister, Abdul Ati al-Obeidi, had talks in Greece and was due to visit Turkey and Malta. The Greek government said that Al-Obeidi’s meeting with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou shows that Libya is attempting to find a political solution to hostilities. Turkey’s government said today it would talk with both the Libyan government and the opposition.

Read more: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/gaddafi-ceasefire-proposal-rejected-by-italy-after-contact-through-greece/430975/

[Davis_X_Machina]

8. Considering how tight Berlusconi was with...

...with Qadaffi, Italy's action is very interrrrrresting.

They were heretofore quite content to get oil from Quadaffi -- hell, they moved heaven and earth to get it again after Lockerbie.

What's even more of a political football than a spike in gas prices?

Come si dice "boatlift marielito" in italiano?

[jakeXT]

9. yep and it teaches us that non-aggresion pacts aren't worth the paper they are written on

especially the reason doesn't make any sense .... ah well he is losing better switch sides

Further increasing international pressure on Colonel Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, Italy suspended a 2008 treaty with Libya that includes a nonaggression clause, a move that could allow it to take part in future peacekeeping operations in Libya or enable the use of its military bases in any possible intervention.

“We signed the friendship treaty with a state, but when the counterpart no longer exists — in this case the Libyan state — the treaty cannot be applied,” Italy’s foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said Sunday in a television interview.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/28/world/europe/28military.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Libya's Gaddafi no longer in control - Berlusconi
Reuters February 26, 2011, 11:40 pm

ROME (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi does not seem to be in control of Libya anymore, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Gaddafi's strongest European ally, said Saturday.

"I have fresh news from a few minutes ago and it appears that, effectively, Gaddafi no longer controls the situation in Libya," Berlusconi told a political meeting in Rome.

Berlusconi, who has been relatively subdued in condemning the violence in Libya, said popular revolts in North Africa could bring democracy and freedom but also trigger the creation of "dangerous centres of Islamic fundamentalism a few kilometres from our shores" and a mass exodus of refugees.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/8913502/libyas-gaddafi-no-longer-in-control-berlusconi/,

[Davis_X_Machina]

10. Two thousand-plus years of Italian politics....

...has selected for practitioners who know exactly when to change sides.

Marius and Sulla would be proud. Frattini's formulation of why this isn't a change of policy is epic.