Dubai: Abdul Rahman Shalgam, head of the Libyan mission to the UN, criticised Mummar Gaddafi for offering no political solution to defuse tension in the country and warned that the situation has become very dangerous.
Shalgham, former foreign minister, did not say clearly he would resign his post as head of mission to the UN called the government to halt killing of protesters and warned that the UN Security Council is discussing to impose sanction against Libyan government.
“Libya is more important that anyone regardless of his position or rank in the country and said protecting the unity of Libya has to go without question,” Shalgham said.
However, Shalgham move did not satisfy revolutionists who called on the veteran diplomat to quit Gaddafi’s regime and take the side of the people.
Ibrahim Dubashi, Deputy Chief of Libyan mission to the UN, defected the regime on Sunday and called on the UN to impose sanction on the regime and protect the nation against the crazy regime.
Shalgham, 62, earned the trust of Gaddafi for succeeding to break the embargo imposed by the US and EU against Libya.
Malta refuses landing rights to Libyan plane
Maltese government refused to give landing rights for unidentified plane that was carrying 14 passengers on board. A spokesman for Malta said Lt General Aisha Gaddafi, the only daughter of Muammar Gaddafi was among the passengers.
Lebanon also announced that it has refused the landing of the unschedule Libyan Airline flight at Rafik Al Hariri International Aiport in Beirut. Lebanon did not identify the passengers on the plane.
It is still unknown if both Malta and Lebanon refused the landing of the same plane.
Protesters control 90 per cent of Libya
Having lost control of the country, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's militiamen are desperately trying to hang on to Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown.
Early yesterday, security forces loyal to Sa'edi, Gaddafi's son, encircled Sirte, blocking the coastal highway and another highway linking Libya's eastern and western regions.
"Tanks and manned armoured vehicles have cut the coastal and the inside road linking east with the west. Sirte is the last stronghold of the man since his tribe lives in the city," Fateh Al Talhouni, member of the revolutionary committee in Misurata told Gulf News.
So far, protesters have claimed control of 90 per cent of Libya, including most of the capital Tripoli and major cities such as Benghazi, Baida, Tobruk, Misurata, Zawiya and Zantan.
More gunfire was heard near Gaddafi's residence in Tripoli yesterday, but in many parts of the city of two million, people were venturing out to stores, some residents said.
Guards loyal to Gaddafi have fled from checkposts on the Egyptian border and tribal elders have formed local committees to take their place. ‘Welcome to the new Libya', graffiti spray-painted at the crossing proclaimed.
Ships, planes sent to Libya to evacuate citizens
Fawzy Ignashy, a former soldier now in civilian clothes at the border, said that early during the protests, some commanders ordered troops to fire on protesters, but tribal leaders stepped in and ordered them to stop.
Meanwhile, citing an unidentified officer in the air force control room, website Quryna reported that two Libyan air force pilots ejected from their Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jet and let it crash rather than carry out orders to bomb Benghazi.
One of the pilots — identified by the report as Ali Omar Gaddafi — belongs to Gaddafi's tribe, the Gadhadhfa, Farag Al Maghrabi, a local resident who saw the pilots and the wreckage of the jet, said. The jet crashed in a deserted area outside the key oil port of Breqa.
International outrage has mounted after Gaddafi on Tuesday called on his supporters to take to the streets and fight protesters in a fiery, but rambling address on state TV.
Security Council reacts
The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday condemned the crackdown on protesters and demanded that violence against civilians should end immediately.
A press statement agreed by all 15 members of the UN's most powerful body expressed "grave concern" at the situation in Libya, "deplored the repression against peaceful demonstrators, and expressed deep regret at the deaths of hundreds of civilians".
Celebrations drown leader's threats in the east
Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said estimates of some 1,000 people killed in the violence in Libya were "credible" as governments scrambled to send planes and ships to evacuate their citizens from Libya.
In another sign Gaddafi's regime is disintegrating, his powerful interior minister Abdul Fattah Younus Al Abidi reportedly resigned on Monday after hearing that at least 300 civilians were killed in Benghazi.
He accused Gaddafi of planning to attack civilians on a wider scale.
There seems to be little sympathy in the region for Gaddafi and his family with Lebanon refusing earlier this week to grant landing rights for a private plane transporting the Lebanese wife of one of the Libyan leader's sons, a security official told AFP yesterday.
Meanwhile, Swedish tabloid Expressen has quoted Libya's former justice minister claiming that Gaddafi personally ordered the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people in 1988.
Expressen yesterday quoted Mustafa Abdul Jalil as telling its correspondent in Libya that "I have proof that Gaddafi gave the order about Lockerbie." He, however, did not produce any proof.
