Libya’s government said yesterday it was ready to negotiate reforms, but only as long as Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi was not forced out. Loyalist troops, meanwhile, pushed rebel fighters back from the key oil port of Brega.
Qaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam, meanwhile, dismissed former Libyan foreign minister Mussa Kussa, who defected to the West last week, as just a “sick and old” man who had succumbed to the psychological pressures of war.
Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told journalists in Tripoli that everything except the departure of Qaddafi was negotiable, saying he was a unifying figure after ruling the nation for four decades.
“What kind of political system is implemented in the country? This is negotiable, we can talk about it,” Ibrahim said. “We can have anything, elections, referendums.”
However, Qaddafi’s future was sacrosanct, he said, only hours after opposition rebels flatly rejected a reported peace deal that could see the embattled leader’s son take charge of the north African nation.
Qaddafi was “the safety valve” for the unity of the country’s tribes and people, Ibrahim said.
“We think he is very important to lead any transition to a democratic and transparent model,” he said.
In a show of defiance, Qaddafi greeted supporters late on Monday in his first public appearance since March 22 at his Bab el-Aziziya residence in Tripoli, bombed by coalition forces two days earlier, national television said.
Seif, long seen as the successor to his father before the wave of protests shook the country, briefly showed up at a Tripoli hotel to record an interview with the BBC in which he made dismissive comments about Kussa, once a pillar of the regime.
Seif, who had not been seen in public since coalition air strikes began on March 19, said Kussa had been allowed to leave the country for medical treatment.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a