Libyan rebels reject Hugo Chávez mediation offer

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Libyan rebels seen training in Benghazi
Leaders of Libyan rebels, seen training in Benghazi, say Muammar Gaddafi has lost the right to negotiate a peace settlement since his regime started killing people. Photograph: Hussein Malla/AP





The nascent rebel committee in Benghazi and the military leadership that jointly run the eastern side of the country insist that they are now too committed to consider any sort of ceasefire. They say that Gaddafi would use it to re-organise his loyalist troops for a major assault on rebel-held cities.

Details of what Chávez proposed to Gaddafi are scant. The Arab League has also been told of the Venezuelan leader's offer but is similarly in the dark about what it entails.

In Tripoli, the Libyan government said it accepted the Venezuelan offer.

The information minister, Andres Izarra, said the Arab League had shown interest in Chavez's proposal to send an international commission to talk with both sides in Libya.

Reports that Chavez's proposal was being taken seriously by Arab leaders has pushed down oil prices.

In Benghazi, Khalid Alsahly, a lawyer who is acting as liaison officer between the military and civilian councils, said: "The starting point of our revolution is peaceful resistance, and we were peaceful until Gaddafi's people started using guns and fire on us.

"Now we are training and, yes, we will march to Tripoli if necessary. We have a very great number of young men who are being trained, and we have the resolve.

"They are full of desire to change the Gaddafi regime and we will march on Tripoli because we have the will to fight, and his people do not. We will move when we are ready."