In These New Times

People’s Daily

12th July, 2011

French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet urged Libyan rebels to hold talks with pro-Gaddafi forces, citing the talks as an ultimate condition to end foreign military operations in the North African country, local media reported on Monday.

“They have now to sit around a table… We’ll stop the bombing when the Libyans talk to each other and the military forces on all sides return to their barracks,” local radio Europe1 quoted Longuet as saying.

“They can talk to each other because we provide the proof that there is no solution by force,” he added.

Longuet’s remarks came as the NATO-led bombing campaign went on into its fourth month since the end of March. Earlier reports said the operations had cost the alliance billions of dollars, but has so far failed to produce a swift outcome it had expected.

Longuet noted that Muammar Gaddafi must step down, but added his leave is not a condition to stop raids.

Asked whether it was possible to hold talks if Gaddafi had not stepped down, Longuet said: “He will be in another room in his palace with another title.”

However, according to French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, “the challenge is how to push Gaddafi to set aside of political and military responsibility”.

Speaking to the daily Sud-Ouest, Juppe said the question “is not whether he must quit, but when and how.”

“I do not have the answer but the African Union is working on that,” he said.

France was the first country to recognize the Libyan rebels’ National Transition Council. The country proposed the no-fly zone with Britain and took the initiative in launching air strikes against forces loyal to Gaddafi.

Source: Xinhua