Libya’s oil minister confirmed Wednesday
that he’s defected and said he’s considering signing up with the opposition
movement.The announcement, another blow to the Moammar Gadhafi regime, comes
after NATO said it has decided to extend its mission in Libya by 90 days, World Cup Football Shirt
continuing a campaign that began in March.Shukri Ghanem told CNN in Rome that
he left Libya because the suffering of the people became too unbearable.”
This war is getting even worse every day
and there is no end to it and we would like to end this thing peacefully and
come back to a solution quickly to reinstate democracy and constitutional
government,” he said. Ghanem, Football
National Teams 68, is the latest of several top Libyan officials to depart
from the regime since the unrest there started in February. Among them was
Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa. The country’s interior and justice ministers
and other diplomats are part of the opposition movement trying to topple the
Gadhafi regime.The opposition’s National Transitional Council is based in the
eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.
Ghanem couldn’t predict how long the
Gadhafi regime will last but said the strongman’s political structure is in
shambles. He said he doesn’t know how long he’ll be in Rome
or when he’ll return to Libya.As for the NATO mission extension, Secretary
General Anders Fogh Rasmussen issued a statement saying, Brazil
Football Shirt “We are determined to continue our operation to protect the
people of Libya.”We
will sustain our efforts to fulfill the United Nations mandate. We will keep up
the pressure to see it through.” Resolution 1973 was approved by the U.N.
Security Council in March and authorized member states “to take all necessary
measures to protect civilians under threat of attack in the country, including Benghazi, while excluding
a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory.”The
Libyan government has accused NATO of killing hundreds of civilians and
wounding thousands more during a two-month bombing campaign in Libya.
Between March 19 and May 26, NATO air
strikes have killed 718 “civilian martyrs,” according to Libyan government
spokesman Musa Ibrahim, who on Tuesday accused the alliance of acting outside
“the limits of international law.” Another 4,067 were injured, Brazil
Shirt he said.CNN cannot independently verify the figures.The government
released the numbers after meetings between Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and
South African President Jacob Zuma in which the men discussed a possible
African Union-brokered cease-fire, Ibrahim said.Under the prospective accord,
“everything would be on the table,” said Ibrahim, “including the place and
position of Gadhafi.”But, Ibrahim said, the country’s longtime ruler would not
step down from power as a prerequisite for further dialogue concerning the
prospective cease-fire.Zuma had “lengthy discussions” with Gadhafi, his office
said in a news release.
“We
call on all leaders in Libya
to exercise decisive leadership to find a solution to the crisis in the
country, and to put the interests of their country first,” Zuma said in the
release.He also urged “NATO and other parties to respect the (African Union’s)
role in searching for a solution.”An intensified NATO campaign has resulted in
sizable defections from the Gadhafi camp, including eight generals who recently
fled to Italy, the U.N. Under-Secretary-General B. Lynn Pascoe said in a
written statement.In recent weeks, Gadhafi has been seen in public only rarely
as NATO has stepped up attacks against his sprawling Bab el-Azizia compound.