WASHINGTON (AFP) - US envoys held a rare meeting with representatives of Moamer Gaddafi’s regime over the weekend and urged the Libyan strongman to cede power, a US official said Monday.
The one-off meeting on Saturday came a day after the United States and other Western and regional powers recognized the rebel Transitional National Council as Libya’s legitimate authority.
US officials “met with regime representatives to deliver a clear and firm message that the only way to move forward is for Gaddafi to step down,” the US official said in Washington on condition of anonymity.
“This was not a negotiation. It was the delivery of a message,” the official said.
“We have no plans to meet again, because the message has been delivered,” she said.
Another US official, who was traveling with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in India, said that the meeting included Jeffrey Feltman, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, and Gene Cretz, who is the US ambassador to Libya but has left the country.
The official would not say who was on Gaddafi’s side or where the meeting took place, other than that it was outside of Libya. CNN, quoting a spokesman for Gaddafi’s regime in Libya, said the talks took place in neighboring Tunisia.
Gaddafi, who has ruled Libya for four decades, has been hanging on to power despite rebel advances and four months of NATO-led bombings.
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