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Gaddafi ‘contributed €50m to Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential election fund’

Colonel Gaddafi in Paris after a meeting with France's President Nicolas Sarkozy in December 2007. Photograph: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images

French president hit by new claims as confidential note suggests ex-Libyan leader helped finance his election campaign

Damaging new claims have emerged about the funding of Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign and his links with former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi emerged.

The French investigative website Mediapart claims to have seen a confidential note suggesting Gaddafi contributed up to €50m (£42m) to Sarkozy’s election fund five years ago.

Similar allegations emerged a year ago when Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam claimed Libya helped finance the 2007 campaign and demanded the French president, who led the war on the Libyan leader, return the money.

In an interview with the Euronews TV channel, Saif al-Islam, who is currently being held in Libya after his father’s defeat and death, threatened to make details of the bank transfers public after the French leader threw his weight behind opposition forces.

The latest allegations come at a crucial time for Sarkozy who is seeking a second term in office in a two-round election in under six weeks.

Mediapart journalist Fabrice Arfi told the Guardian he had seen leaked documents contained in the legal dossier of the affair, currently under investigation by a judge.

“We knew these documents existed but it is the first time we have had the details of what was in them,” he said.

“And there are lots of details, including dates, places and amounts.”

One document, a government briefing note, allegedly points to visits to Libya by Sarkozy and his close colleagues and advisers, which it says were aimed at securing campaign funding.

Shortly after Sarkozy’s election, Colonel Gaddafi was invited to Paris and allowed to pitch his bedouin tent in the grounds of an official French residence close to the Elysée Palace. He was described as the “Brother Leader” by the French.

When previously asked about Saif al-Islam’s claims, a spokesman for the Elysée Palace told Le Monde: “We deny it, quite evidently.”

guardin.co.uk

March 16, 2012
Turkey May Freeze Assad’s Assets; Libya’s Qaddafi Still at Large

By Miles Weiss

Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) — Syria is facing mounting pressure for political reform as Turkey signaled it might freeze some $500 million in assets belonging to President Bashar al-Assad.

Turkey, which has imposed an air, land and sea blockade on its neighbor, would freeze all of Assad’s assets, including his bank accounts, if the United Nations enacts an embargo on Syria, Milliyet reported. The Turkish Finance Ministry’s criminal investigation unit is following Syrian banking activities in the country, the Istanbul-based newspaper reported.

White House National Security Advisor Tom Donilon issued a statement yesterday thanking Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, along with the Gulf Cooperation Council, for opposing the violence in Syria. More than 3,600 Syrian civilians have been killed since political protests began in March, according to figures compiled by Ammar Qurabi of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria.

The country’s death toll rose by 14 yesterday, Al Jazeera reported, citing local activists. According to the Al Jazeera news agency, Syrian police shot dead 7 protesters across the country yesterday after killing 32 on Friday.

The Syrian army took control of the town of Rastan and detained 3,000 people yesterday as soldiers who had defected to join the activists withdrew from the town to Hama, Al Arabiya said. The former soldiers left in an attempt to spare civilians from random shelling by government troops, Walid Abdel Qader, a Syrian opposition figure, told the news service.

In Libya, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s military mission is nearing completion and its involvement there could begin winding down as soon as this coming week, the Associated Press reported. Army General Carter Ham, the top U.S. commander for Africa, told the AP that U.S. military chiefs will likely provide NATO officials in Brussels with their assessments on Libya late in the week.

Muammar Qaddafi, the deposed Libyan leader, remains at large. The National Transitional Council, Libya’s interim government, plans to seek a two-day truce to allow civilians to depart from Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte, Reuters reported, citing the council’s chairman. Civilians have been leaving Sirte as interim government forces and NATO warplanes shell Gaddafi loyalists.

–Editors: Ann Hughey, Christian Thompson.

To contact the reporter on this story: Miles Weiss in Washington at mweiss@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net

via Turkey May Freeze Assad’s Assets; Libya’s Qaddafi Still at Large – Businessweek.

October 2, 2011
On the desert trail of Tony Blair’s millions

An explosive new TV documentary reveals the apparent conflict of interests that allows the former prime minister, now a Middle East peace envoy, to earn millions.

A bit rich: Mr Blair has said that he is worth 'considerably less' than £20 million Photo: REUTERS

By Peter Oborne

One of the first letters arranging Tony Blair’s 2008 visit to Colonel Gaddafi, the now deposed Libyan despot, was written on the notepaper of the “Office of the Quartet Representative” – the formal title of the former British prime minister, reflecting his role as Middle East peace envoy.

Mr Blair flew into Tripoli in a jet arranged by the Libyan government, and was met by British diplomats. Yet a well-placed source has told The Daily Telegraph that his visits were little to do with Middle East peace, saying instead that the “visits were lobby visits for banking deals with JP Morgan” – the US investment bank that pays Mr Blair a consultancy fee of a reported £2 million a year. However, Mr Blair’s official spokesman categorically denied that Blair lobbied Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi’s son, on behalf of the bank, insisting that the visits were largely to do with African affairs.

Much remains mysterious about Mr Blair’s repeated visits to Tripoli over the past few years. But they display the essential characteristic of the jet-setting billionaire lifestyle he has enjoyed ever since leaving Downing Street in June 2007: an extraordinary confusion of public duty and private interest.

Was Mr Blair in Libya – as the headed notepaper would suggest – to discuss Middle East peace with Gaddafi? Was he working on behalf of his Governance Initiative, which claims it “pioneers a new way of working with African countries”? Was he sounding out deals for J P Morgan, as the well-placed Telegraph source insists? Or was he there on behalf of his own very lucrative money-making concern, Tony Blair Associates (TBA), whose professed objective is to provide “strategic advice” on “political and economic trends and government reform”?

This confusion of motive and identity follows Mr Blair almost everywhere he goes, as we found when researching our forthcoming Channel 4 Dispatches film, The Wonderful World of Tony Blair.

Let’s take the example of Mr Blair’s visit to the Emir of Kuwait, part of a wider Middle Eastern tour, made on January 26, 2009. He was introduced to the Emir – who is said to feel a profound sense of gratitude to the former British prime minister because of his role in deposing Kuwait’s greatest enemy, Saddam Hussein – in his capacity of Quartet Representative. And, indeed, Blair is charged by the Quartet with raising Middle Eastern funds to plough into Palestinian projects.

Yet, puzzlingly, by his side was a figure who has nothing to do with the Quartet whatever: Jonathan Powell. Mr Powell, who used to be Downing Street Chief of Staff when Mr Blair was prime minister, today has a new role as senior adviser to Tony Blair Associates, the vehicle through which Mr Blair channels many of his money-earning interests. Mr Powell was perched on a sofa during the meeting.

Shortly afterwards, the Emir handed Tony Blair Associates a lucrative consultancy deal to provide advice on the future of the Kuwaiti economy. Nobody knows how much this deal – which was kept secret for two years – is worth. Because the TBA contract was handled by the Emir’s personal office, it is exempt from scrutiny by Kuwait’s normally rigorous financial regulatory body.

Few Kuwaitis are prepared to speak out publicly, because it is illegal to criticise the Emir. But Nasser Al Abolly, a leading Kuwaiti pro-democracy campaigner, said he had heard from good sources that Mr Blair had been paid 12 million dinars, about £27 million. “I believe this amount is exorbitant,” Abolly told us, adding that much of Blair’s eventual report was not original and had come up with many of the same recommendations as earlier reports on the future of Kuwait – an observation echoed by other Kuwaiti politicians. A spokesman for Mr Blair insists that the sum involved was far less than £27 million, though declined to say how much TBA had been paid.

Mr Blair’s job as representative for the Quartet – the international diplomatic group that represents the US, Russia, the United Nations and Europe in their common attempt to forge peace in the Middle East – is riddled with this type of very troubling ambiguity.

Let’s take the example of the deal trumpeted by Mr Blair as one of his greatest achievements in his role as Quartet Representative – his success in persuading the Israeli government to open up radio frequencies so that the phone company Wataniya Mobile can operate in the West Bank.

Wataniya Mobile’s chief executive officer Bassam Hanoun cannot praise Mr Blair too highly. He told us that the Wataniya network had been built, “but it was dead, not operational” – until Mr Blair’s forceful intervention with Israeli ministers.

Yet Wataniya’s owner, the Qatari telecoms giant QTEL, is a major client of one of the former prime minister’s most significant paymasters, JP Morgan. When QTEL bought Wataniya Mobile’s parent company, Wataniya International, in 2007, the company did so with a $2 billion loan that JP Morgan helped to arrange, and the bank stood to make huge profits once the radio frequencies were released.

A near identical conflict involves a second major Palestinian project for which Mr Blair is lobbying heavily – the development of a huge gas field off the shore of Gaza worth more than $6 billion. Once again, he is fighting to overturn an Israeli edict blocking development, and again there is a potential conflict of interest. British Gas, which owns the rights to operate the field, is a major client of, yes, you guessed it, JP Morgan.

JP Morgan insists it has never discussed either the Wataniya or the British Gas deal with Mr Blair – while the former prime minister insists that in both cases he was, in any case, wholly unaware of the JP Morgan connection.

Nevertheless, the conflict is glaring – and Mr Blair would be unable to get away with this kind of confusion if he were a public servant in Britain, or working for an international organisation such as the World Bank or the IMF.

Dr Nicholas Allen, a senior politics lecturer at the University of London, specialising in parliamentary ethics, told us: “It is not altogether clear that Blair is separating very clearly his work as the representative of the Quartet and his business interests. Clearly, if he was holding a ministerial office in Britain, that kind of conflict – even the appearance of that kind of conflict, the appearance of that influence – wouldn’t be tolerated.”

Dr Allen says that no fewer than six out of seven of the Nolan principles – the code of ethics for public servants enforced by Mr Blair when he was prime minister – “appear to be undermined by Blair’s conduct”.

This immunity from ordinary standards comes despite the fact that Mr Blair is partly funded by the British taxpayer and gets the support of British civil servants. It all sounds uncannily similar to the notorious so-called “sofa government” – the confusion of formal roles and identities in the run up to the Iraq invasion for which, as prime minister, Mr Blair was censured by the former cabinet secretary Lord Butler.

It must be acknowledged that Mr Blair does much philanthropic and public spirited work through his Africa governance initiative, his Faith Foundation, and also for the Quartet (even though we found very few Palestinians who were prepared to speak well of him). However, these admirable objectives have been compromised and tarnished by his apparent drive to make money.

The Quartet cannot occupy more than one week a month of Blair’s schedule, perhaps less. He has earned a reported £6 million – though some in the City insist the real figure may be much higher – from JP Morgan since his consultancy started in 2008. Add in an estimated £1.5 million from advising the insurance group Zurich Financial services on its climate initiative.

He has advised Mubadala, one of Abu Dhabi’s most prominent sovereign wealth funds, and the luxury goods concern LVMH. In the television programme, we calculate that the Blair family property portfolio alone – with seven houses ranging from his manor house in Buckinghamshire to his London house in Connaught Square – is worth over £14 million. And then comes a further reported £9 million or more from speeches.

It is impossible to tell how much Tony Blair Inc is worth exactly because his finances are carefully hidden behind complex financial structures. Mr Blair himself is on record as saying that he is worth “considerably less” than £20 million. There is some reason to be sceptical of this claim.

Mr Blair insists that his conduct since stepping down as prime minister has been honourable, above board and beyond reproach. But this much can surely be said: when Blair joined the Quartet, he was handed a priceless opportunity to earn a place in history by making a genuine commitment to world peace. He has made some progress. Yet he seems to treat his post as envoy for the Quartet as a part-time post, by allowing his private commercial interests to merge with his public duty. And – as ever – the old maestro is getting away with it.

Additional reporting by Sasha Joelle Achilli. Watch Peter Oborne reporting for ‘Dispatches: The Wonderful World of Tony Blair’ on Monday at 8pm on Channel 4.

www.telegraph.co.uk, 23 Sep 2011

September 24, 2011
Tripoli plays the Turkey card

The NTC purports to mimic the Turkish model, but the Western world should be wary of Libya’s new “moderate Islam”, warns Gamal Nkrumah

Rarely, in the Arab Spring, has a new government taken power by force of arms in less propitious circumstances. So far Libya is the first. Now that the dueling speeches are over, Muammar Gaddafi and his adversaries clearly have a morning-after crisis. Gaddafi is at large, on the run. That could trigger unintended consequences. That is why his foes have declared that his capture dead or alive is their top priority. Gaddafi’s military defeat has done nothing to slow his growing international isolation.

Libya fighters raise their assault riffles in celebration for the arrival of Libyan Transitional National Council chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil at Metiga airport in Tripoli

The refusal by the National Transitional Council (NTC) during its campaign to oust Gaddafi from office to spell out the challenges that face the country has been particularly damaging. That is in large measure because it has left many Libyans believing that every Libyan has the right to spell out his or her views on matters of post-Gaddafi Libyan politics. The NTC leaders have declared that Libyans are of a moderate Islamic disposition — “Al-Islam Al-Wasati” or middle-of-the-road, as they describe it. They should in addition take the principles they enunciated on national security and fundamental religious freedoms and convert them into terms of reference for the new post-Gaddafi democratic Libya.

The NTC is on firmer ground in their criticism of the more militant factions of the anti-Gaddafi forces whom Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the NTC chairman, described as constituting only five per cent of the Libyan people. He timed his arrival in Tripoli for a rally this week in Martyr Square, formerly Green Square.

It appears that the leading proponents of Islamist orientation of the NTC are those associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab world. While Abdel-Jalil is entitled to air his views, not all his arguments convince. At the heart of his claims is that Libya will be run on the “Turkish model”.

In sharp contrast, the nuances of Gaddafi’s anti-imperialist ideological outlook have been overwhelmed by the sound bytes. The ousted leader’s detractors believe that the NTC deserves praise for exposing the shabby and shoddy regime of the ousted Libyan leader, a man who did his utmost to destroy civil society in Libya.

Of course, Gaddafi was not elected to office. He usurped power in a military coup d’etat. The leaders of the NTC are determined to demonstrate that they are not following in Gaddafi’s footsteps. They insist that free and fair elections will be held within a year, eight months if possible. However, is it fair to claim that Gaddafi’s harrumphs at the hypocrisy of Western-style multi-party pluralism and democracy are nothing more than a fanatic assault on the coalition of forces that form the NTC. His admirers and well-wishers point out that his political career was something of pluck and personal discovery and that all his famous speeches, the infamous Green Book and his outrageous costumes were all tempered by a self-mocking humour.

Now the NTC’s Liberation Army seeks to extend its authority to the south of the country where support for the ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is still strong. More glaringly, under the NTC’s proposed parliamentary system, it would be absurd to expect the disparate factions that constitute the NTC to enact only policies spelt out by the Western democracies.

The latter could be in for a rude awakening. A country that has been run by an iron-fisted autocratic ruler for 42 years cannot become a viable democracy overnight. It is undeniable that the NTC has important national security interests in recognising and buttressing aspects of Muslim jurisdiction into the post-Gaddafi political establishment in Libya. The political demise of the supposedly socialist secularism espoused by Gaddafi is a forgone conclusion. But maybe this was a proper outcome of the state capitalism actually practiced by the Gaddafi regime.

Somewhat capriciously, Gaddafi’s son Saidi and seven of his father’s senior and trusted aides surfaced in neighbouring Niger to seek political asylum. Apparently, Tuareg tribesmen who have been loyal to Gaddafi assisted them in their escape from Libya as he championed their cause for many decades. Saidi and his entourage fled Libya to the oasis city of Agades, a Tuareg stronghold. Saidi’s inauspicious exit accentuates the NTC’s problem with Libya’s porous borders.

However, the authorities in Niger insisted that Saidi move on to the country’s capital Niamey. It is not clear whether Saidi will remain in Niger or join his sister Aisha, his mother Safiya and two brothers Mohamed and Hannibal in Algeria. Seif Al-Islam, is still believed to be in Libya — either in the southern Libyan desert city of Sebha in Fezzan, Libya’s southernmost province or in Sirte, Gaddafi’s hometown. Seif Al-Islam’s double failure to pursue his political raison d’etre of inheriting his father’s ideological mantle invites the conclusion that his condition is hopeless. His reaction to NTC advances was not merely hostile, but positively malevolent.

The NTC stresses that treating Seif Al-Islam with benign neglect would be a grave mistake. This is in part due to irreconcilable political differences between Gaddafi and his foes. Then by a familiar rhetorical ploy Gaddafi could endure as the idealised Third World leader with his old-fashioned anti-imperialism from outside the grey world of Westernisation.

Tolerance was not universal under Libya’s ousted leader. In their attempt to heal the political rifts resulting from the civil war, the NTC is trying to portray itself as tolerant. Many of Gaddafi’s henchmen have surrendered to the NTC authorities. Amnesty International has warned about atrocities committed by the NTC’s Liberation Army. However, Western governments by and large believe that the NTC has been relatively generous and restrained.

The leaders of the NTC insist on punishment for the criminal elements in Gaddafi’s entourage. But they cautioned against unbridled vindictiveness, arguing that if there were any charges to be leveled against Gaddafi supporters, those charges were also to be the object of formal legal attention.

The NTC’s approach so far has been impeccably fair in form and apparent content as far as Gaddafi’s followers and hangers-on are concerned. Toleration has had to be relearned by a new generation of post-Gaddafi Libyans.

Any attempt by the NTC to replicate the so-called Turkish model must be squared with their purportedly Western liberal baggage.

The question is whether Abdel-Jalil can be the architect of a new Libya with civil society at its heart. According to a January 2010 US diplomatic cable from Tripoli exposed by WikiLeaks, Abdel-Jalil was noted as supporting US neoliberal policy, in particular US Commercial Law Development programmes in Libya. Is really he capable of drawing up a new social contract for the Libyan people?

Abdel-Jalil served Gaddafi for years as secretary of the General People’s Committee for Justice before he was dispatched by Gaddafi to Benghazi during the early days of the uprising in February to negotiate the release of hostages taken by militant Islamists. Once in Benghazi he switched sides, denouncing his former boss. The moral of the story is that the NTC’s posturing as a moderate Islamic democratic force cannot soberly be applied within the context of an inconclusive and unconvincing liberal agenda.

September 21, 2011
US, allies formally recognize Libya rebels

By MATTHEW LEE and SELCAN HACAOGLU Associated Press © 2011 The Associated Press

ISTANBUL — The United States and more than 30 other nations on Friday formally recognized Libya’s main opposition group as the country’s legitimate government, giving the rebel movement a major boost.

The decision, which declared Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s regime no longer legitimate, gives his foes greater credibility and will potentially free up billions in cash that the rebels fighting Libyan forces urgently need.

The front lines in the Libyan civil war have largely stagnated since the popular uprising seeking to oust Gadhafi broke out in February. Rebels, backed by NATO’s air force bombings, control much of the country’s east and pockets in the west. But Gadhafi controls the rest from his stronghold in Tripoli, the capital.

Foreign ministers and other representatives of the so-called Contact Group on Libya said in a statement Friday that the “Gadhafi regime no longer has any legitimate authority in Libya.” They said the Libyan strongman and certain members of his family must go.

“The Contact Group has sent an unequivocal message to Gadhafi: that he has no legitimacy and there is no future for Libya with him in power. He must go and go now,” said British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

The nations said they would deal with Libya’s main opposition group — the National Transitional Council, or NTC — as “the legitimate governing authority in Libya” until an interim authority is in place that will organize free and fair elections.

In addition to the U.S., the 32-nation Contact Group on Libya includes members of NATO, the European Union and the Arab League.

Diplomatic recognition of the foes of Gadafi means that the U.S. will soon be able to fund the opposition with some of the more than $30 billion in Gahdafi-regime assets that are frozen in American banks. Other countries holding billions more in such assets will be able to do the same.

Contact Group representatives broke into spontaneous applause when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced her nation’s recognition of the NTC, according to U.S. officials.

Rebel spokesman Mahmoud Shammam welcomed the NTC’s recognition and called on other nations to deliver on a promise to release hundreds of millions of dollars in funds to the opposition. “Funds, funds, funds,” Shammam said, in order to stress the opposition’s demand. It remained unclear Friday whether the unfrozen assets could be used to purchase arms, or if some restrictions would still apply.

Meanwhile, the council’s oil minister said Libya could be exporting 1 million barrels of oil a day within three to four months of Gadhafi’s departure. He said the opposition hopes to hold elections within a year and resume oil exports very soon, saying the damage to oil facilities has been minimal and repaired.

There had been concerns about whether the initial replacement government would represent the full spectrum of Libyan society.

Human Rights Watch urged the Contact Group to press the council to ensure that civilians are protected in areas where rebels have assumed control. It cited abuses in four towns — Awaniya, Rayayinah, Zawiyat al-Bagul, and Qawalish — recently captured by rebels in the western mountains, including looting, arson and beatings of some civilians who remained when government forces withdrew.

In June, the group criticized the rebels for arbitrarily detaining dozens of men suspected of supporting Gadhafi.

Early on, some in the West feared the rebels contained radical Islamist elements. While a number of individual fighters have been found to have old connections to radical groups, none of them have risen in the rebel leadership, which insists it seeks to establish a democratic government based on a secular constitution.

Clinton said the council won international recognition after giving assurances it would respect human rights and presenting a plan on how to pave the way to a truly democratic Libyan government.

She said the assurances included upholding the group’s international obligations, pursuing a democratic reform process that is both geographically and politically inclusive, and dispersing funds for the benefit of the Libyan people.

“We believe them, we think that’s what they intend to do,” Clinton said.

The U.S and others were impressed by the progress the NTC has made in laying the groundwork for a successful transition to a Libya that protects the rights of all its citizens, including women and minority groups, diplomats said.

Asked why it took so long to recognize the NTC, Clinton said the U.S. administration analyzed the situation to make sure that the NTC’s actions are in accord with its statements.

“We really have acted in warp time in diplomatic terms, but we took our time to make sure that we were doing so based on our best possible assessments,” Clinton said.

Ahead of the meeting in Istanbul, a spokesman for the Gadhafi government said its members were ready to die in defense of the country’s oil against attacks by the rebels and NATO forces. “We will kill, we will die for oil,” Moussa Ibrahim said. “Rebels, NATO, we don’t care. We will defend our oil to the last drop of blood and we are going to use everything.”

The Contact Group statement called for the establishment of a cease-fire and the provision of humanitarian assistance to “normalize life.” It also urged a smooth transition to democracy, ruled out participation of “perpetrators of atrocities against civilians” in a future political settlement, and called on members to provide financial aid to the opposition, including the unfreezing of Libyan assets and helping the opposition to resume the production and export of oil.

U.S. officials said more work needs to be done to fully legalize that step under current U.N. sanctions on Libya.

The recognition does not mean that the U.S. diplomatic mission in the rebel-held city of Benghazi, Libya, is now an embassy. Titles of staff and names of offices will be decided in the coming days, the officials said. Other countries may move more quickly, they said.

Meanwhile, Gadhafi has been urging his loyalists to take up arms to attack Libya’s enemies. In an audio broadcast to thousands of supporters in the town of Zlitan on Friday, Gadhafi defiantly addressed the Contact Group:

“You guys say that Gadhafi is over,” he said. “Then why are all these people demonstrating outside?”

___

Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara and Ben Hubbard in Cairo contributed to this report.

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July 16, 2011
Turkey proposes ‘road map’ to end Libyan crisis

Turkey will present a “road map” to help end the Libyan crisis when countries backing NATO’s military mission in Libya gather in Istanbul to rev up pressure on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to step aside, Turkey’s foreign ministry said today.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and some 40 other members of the so-called Contact Group on Libya will hold their fourth meeting tomorrow to support a post-Gaddafi era, boost support to the the National Transitional Council (NTC) and plot steps for a political transition.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said today nations participating in the fourth Contact Group meeting were expected to discuss a Turkish plan delineating political options to end the Libyan crisis despite Gaddafi’s refusal to stand down, and to set the stage for a democratic transition.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the ministry’s rule, would not provide further details of what Turkey was bringing to the table.

NATO has been bombing Gaddafi’s forces and military sites to enforce a U.N. resolution to protect civilians. Still, the civil war has fallen into a virtual stalemate, with neither side able to make significant progress in recent weeks.

Clinton warned Gaddafi yesterday that his days in power are numbered and that the international community will be stepping up pressure on him to leave.

Libyan revolutionary forces, known collectively as the National Liberation Army (NLA) have enlarged the area under their control in the west and inched closer to a key supply route to the capital Tripoli.

U.S. officials say pressure appears to be building against Gaddafi’s regime after months of apparent stalemate. They point at three key indicators: dwindling fuel supplies, a cash crisis and reports of low morale among regime troops. Gaddafi is also facing a cash crisis after Turkey cut off his access, on July 4, to hundreds of millions in Libyan funds held in a Turkish-Libyan bank, they say.

The assessment comes as French authorities describe overtures from Libyan emissaries reportedly seeking sanctuary for the Libyan leader, who has survived sustained bombing by NATO war planes and U.S. armed drones since mid-March. Clinton said Gaddafi associates were sending mixed messages about whether he would be willing to step down.

Many of the Contact Group nations have formalised ties with National Transitional Council and provide it with financial assistance. At a meeting in the United Arab Emirates last month, the international contact group pledged more than $1.3 billion to help support the council.

Italy said yesterday a the shift among some African leaders to discuss a Libya without Gaddafi was a significant development that should help spur a political resolution to the conflict.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Maurizio Massari said yesterday there was now a “convergence” with the African Union about negotiating a post-Gaddafi Libya

via Turkey proposes ‘road map’ to end Libyan crisis | Libya TV.

July 15, 2011