Libya: 31 March as it happened
Full coverage of events in Libya as they happened on 31 March 2011 as Moussa Koussa, the Libyan foreign minister, defects to Britain.
• Gaddafi accuses western leaders of 'power madness' amid defections
• Hague: We hope Moussa Koussa will be first of many
• Libyan envoy in London for secret talks on exit strategy
• US jets pull out of Libyan airstrikes leaving Britain and France in driving seat
Latest
22.50 Boris Johnson has warned tonight of the "terrible" consequences of continued Nato air strikes and the results of a stalemate. Appearing on BBC1's Question Time, he said:
I am worried that what we may be doing is inadvertently entrenching support for the mad Colonel.
I do worry that if we get into a stalemate and if, frankly, the rebels don't seem to be making the progress that we would like, we have to be brave, to say to ourselves that our policy is not working and encourage the Arabs themselves to take leadership in all of this.
22.37 Libya's top oil official Shokri Ghanem denied reports he had left the country, saying he was still in his office.
"This is not true, I am in my office and I will be on TV in a few minutes," Ghamen told Reuters by telephone.
Al Jazeera television has reported today that "a number of figures" close to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had left Libya for Tunisia, citing Ghanem as one of them.
23.36 Nato has made it clear that rebel forces in Libya are not impervious to bombardment if they attack civilians.
Canadian Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, commander of the NATO operation which assumed control of Libyan airspace on Thursday, said anyone attacking civilians "would be ill-advised to continue such activities. I recommend that you cease such activities."
22.32 Bad weather in Libya has hampered a coalition air campaign this week, allowing Gaddafi's forces to advance a US military chief has claimed. Admiral Mike Mullen said:
The biggest problem the last three or four days has been weather. We have not been able to see through the weather or get through the weather to be able to do this kind of identification.
Gaddafi's forces had consolidated their positions to the south of Ajdabiya and were expected to renew an offensive towards Benghazi, Mullen said. Ajdabiya is the last major town at the strategic crossroads to the rebel bastion city of Benghazi.
Rebels have pleaded for more arms and ammunition to supplement dwindling stocks taken from government depots at the start of the conflict
21.43 Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya's deputy UN ambassador, told The Associated Press that Libya's UN Mission, which now totally supports the opposition, knew two days in advance that Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa planned to defect on Wednesday. He said:
We know that most of the high Libyan officials are trying to defect, but most of them are under tight security measures and they cannot leave the country, but we are sure that many of them will benefit from the first chance to be out of the country and to defect.
20.51 Robert Gates the US Defence Secretary has said the United States should not seek to direct the future of a post-Muammar Gaddafi Libya. Gates, who is expected to retire this summer, told a Senate hearing today:
I think that the last thing this country needs is another enterprise in nation building. My view is that the future of Libya - the United States ought not take responsibility for that, frankly. I think there are other countries both in the region and our allies in Europe who can participate in the effort, particularly with nonlethal aid to the help the development of Libya.
I just don't think we need to take on another one.
He added: "I am preoccupied with avoiding mission creep and avoiding having an open-ended, very large-scale American commitment in this respect. We know about Afghanistan; we know about Iraq.
20.14 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is to visit Tunisia on Monday to discuss with the new government there how to stem the flow of migrants to the tiny island of Lampedusa, the government in Rome said today.
Italy shipped more than 2,000 migrants to detention camps on its mainland today, relieving pressure on Lampedusa — a clear-watered fishing and tourist island with a population of 5,000 — which ran out of shelters days ago when migrant numbers peaked at over 6,000, forcing many of the Tunisians and others to sleep in the open air on docksides and in fields.
At the same time, Italy, the destination of some 20,000 migrants, mostly Tunisian, since the start of the year, renewed its appeal to other European Union countries to take in some of the migrants.
20.03 Norway has said providing arms to support the uprising in Libya would violate the United Nations resolution authorising limited action against Muammar Gaddafi.
19.24 Col Gaddafi has issued a defiant statement after two high-profile departures from his regime, and is calling on leaders of countries attacking his forces to resign. The Libyan news agency says Gaddafi accused Western leaders of being "affected by power madness" and wanting to create another war between Muslims and Christians.
The Libyan government earlier confirmed the resignation of Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, who had defected a day earlier. Ali Abdessalam Treki, a former foreign minister and U.N. General Assembly president, also announced his resignation on Thursday.
18.30
16.30 David Cameron tonight urged Muammar Gaddafi's "henchmen" to follow the example of his former foreign minister and defect. The Prime Minister said the fact that Moussa Koussa had abandoned the dictator and fled to Britain showed the Libyan regime was "crumbling". Speaking at a press conference in Downing Street, Mr Cameron said others should now "come to their senses" and change sides. He said:
"The decision by the former Libyan foreign minister to come to London to resign his position is a decision by someone right at the very top. It tells a compelling story of the desperation and the fear right at the very top of the crumbling and rotten Gaddafi regime."
16.10 A Libyan regime spokesman insisted at a televised press conference that Moussa Koussa left Libya with the consent of the regime. "Mr Koussa asked for permission to seek medical care in Tunisia," Mussa Ibrahim said, adding that "permission was granted." The spokesman also denied reports that other key Libyan officials had defected - namely parliament speaker Mohammed Zwei and external intelligence chief Abu Zeid Durda.
15.15 The Crown Office in Scotland says it has notified the Foreign Office that prosecutors want to interview defecting Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa in connection with the Lockerbie bombing. A spokesman for the Crown Office said:
We have notified the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that the Scottish prosecuting and investigating authorities wish to interview Mr Koussa in connection with the Lockerbie bombing. The investigation into the Lockerbie bombing remains open and we will pursue all relevant lines of inquiry.
15.05 Belgian authorities have released a
14.25 William Hague was in "regular contact" with Moussa Koussa before he defected, ministers have disclosed. The information came in response to a question from Labour MP David Winnick about whether Koussa should have to tell the British authorities as much as possible about the Lockerbie bombing. Sir George Young, the Commons Leader, said:
We want to encourage those around Gaddafi to abandon him, we welcome this further defection and we hope this will allow political transition and real reform to take place. Moussa Koussa is one of the most senior members of the Gaddafi regime and the Foreign Secretary has been in contact with him regularly, most recently last Friday.
14.03 Moussa Ibrahim, Libyan government spokesman, has given his first reaction confirming the flight of the foreign minister, who officials initially insisted was on a diplomatic mission. He said:
We are not relying on individuals to lead this struggle. This is the struggle of a whole nation. It's not dependent on individuals or officials. It doesn't matter how high-ranking it is. We have millions of people leading this struggle. And this is a fact. So if anyone feels tired, feels sick or exhausted, and they want to take a rest -- it happens.
11.13 And here is the statement from William Hague on Moussa Koussa:
Moussa Koussa is not being offered any immunity from British or international justice. He is voluntarily talking to British officials at the moment. His resignation shows that Gaddafi's regime, which has already seen significant defections to the opposition, is fragmented, under pressure and crumbling from within. Gaddafi must be asking himself who will be the next to abandon him.
11.05 More from Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen:
As far as NATO is concerned, and I speak on behalf of NATO, we will focus on the enforcement of the arms embargo and the clear purpose of an arms embargo is to stop the flow of weapons into the country.
10.56 And in another big breaking story, the AFP is reporting that Britain will not offer Moussa Koussa immunity. More on both of these stories as they develop.
10.52 A major development in the Libya situation: Nato has ruled out the possibility of supplying arms to the Libyan rebels.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters he opposed the idea of arming Libyan rebels, stressing NATO was in the country to protect and not to arm Libyans.
10.39 Time for a quick round up from across the Middle East. In Syria, President Bashar al-Assad has ordered the formation of a legal committee to look into lifting a decades old emergency law.
Protesters have repeatedly called for the law to be lifted but yesterday, in his first public remarks since the demonstrations began, the President made no reference to lifting the law.
In Yemen, tension is increasing as tribal chiefs, clerics, civil society figures, youths and supporters from the countryside stream into Sana'a in response to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's call for a show of solidarity.
His challengers, mainly youths camped out at a renamed "Change Square" near Sana'a University, have also urged demonstrators to take to the streets but called off a planned march on the presidential palace for fear of violence.
Meanwhile Kuwait has expelled an unspecified number of Iranian diplomats for alleged links to a spying ring.
10.22 Moussa Koussa's defection to Britain is a "great day" for relatives of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing, the father of one of the victims has said. Jim Swire, whose daughter died in the atrocity, said Koussa "could tell us everything" about the bombing. Mr Swire met Mr Koussa during a visit to Libya in 1998, describing him as "extremely frightening. More frightening than Gaddafi himself." He said:
Today those relatives who seek the truth about why their families were murdered should be rejoicing. Koussa was at the centre of Gaddafi's inner circle. This is a guy who knows everything.
I think this is a fantastic day for those who seek the truth about Lockerbie...He could tell us everything the Gaddafi regime knows. He was clearly running things. If Libya was involved in Lockerbie, he can tell us how they carried out the atrocity and why. I would be appalled if by now the Scottish police are not in England interviewing Mr Koussa. It is a great day for us.
09.52 Italy's foreign minister has claimed defections among Gaddafi's inner circle, rather than military intervention from the west, will bring the Gaddafi regime to an end. Franco Frattini told Canale 5 television:
I
t is not through actions of war that we can make Gaddafi leave, but rather through strong international pressure to encourage defections by people close to him.
(Those people) understand already or will understand very soon that the regime is isolated internationally and that Gaddafi cannot be part of national reconciliation.
09.39 Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has confirmed Nato is now in charge of air operations over Libya. He said:
In line with the mandate of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, NATO's focus is on protecting civilians and civilian-populated areas against the threat of attack.
French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet, center, reviews the troops on the flight deck of the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier
09.27 The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg tweets:
General Richards tells the BBC Koussa s arrival here 'can t be helpful to Gaddafi can it' - what will Foreign Office say later this morning?
09.19 Reuters reports that Gaddafi's forces have sown land mines in areas around the city of Ajdabiya, including Brazilian-made anti-personnel mines and Egyptian-made anti-tank mines.
Two minefields were discovered by monitors in the days following last Saturday's retreat from Ajdabiyah by Gaddafi's troops and appear to be have been laid during their 10-day occupation of the crossroads town 150 km (90 miles) south of the rebel capital Benghazi.
09.08 Rebels have massed outside the east Libyan town of Brega, saying their forces were still battling for control of the oil town, after ceding swathes of territory along the coast road to Gaddafi's troops yesterday.
Rebel fighter Rabia Ezela, waiting about 10 km (6 miles) outside Brega where scores of pick-ups mounted with machineguns and other vehicles had massed, told Reuters: "There were clashes with Gaddafi's forces around Brega at dawn."
Muneim Mustafa, another fighter with an AK-47 rifle slung over his shoulder, said: "God willing there will be more air strikes today, but we will advance no matter what."
Libyan rebel fighters with their weapons on the road in Bin Jawad
09.00 Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General has claimed the international community is "united" on the Libya conflict, the Agence France-Presse reports.
08.52 Irish Times reporter Mary Fitzgerald tweets:
Irish Benghazi resident told me w/ disgust about Bob Geldof performing alongside Gadafy's son Saif in city in 2007. Prompted negative react.
Apparently Geldof's '07 Benghazi perf alongside Gadafy's son had to be abandoned to due hostile reception from crowd
08.39 From one defected minister to another: Ali Errishi, formerly immigration minister in Libya, has told France 24 television that the departure of Moussa Koussa means the Gaddafi regime's "days are numbered".
08.25 ...and that confirmation has now arrived. NATO assumed command of all operations in Libya from 6am GMT, taking over from the international coalition which has been in charge since March 19, a diplomat said.
07.58 Nato should formally announce this morning that it has assumed command of the air strike operation from the US, after the handover was delayed by 24 hours.
07.48 Guardian reporter Chris McGreal in Benghazi tweets:
Is it smart to arm #Libya rebels when lack of big guns less of a problem than lack of discipline and tactics?
07.39 Despite the significance of Moussa Koussa's defection, he is likely to be kept under the radar of the press and public in the immediate future, Sky News is reporting.
07.16 An 18-month-old boy has been killed in an air strike in Libya, after a piece of debris smashed through the wall of his home, the child's family told the Associated Press. The reports on the death of Sirajuddin al-Sweisi have not been independently confirmed.
07.08 Here's a quick round-up of the other Libya-related stories in this morning's papers. In The Telegraph, Defence Correspondent Thomas Harding reports that British and American air strikes have severely depleted Gaddafi's ammunition stocks.
Security Correspondent Duncan Gardham reports on William Hague expelling five Libyan diplomats from Britain, while Ben Farmer in Ajdabiya describes a panicked retreat to Benghazi by rebels under the threat of Gaddafi's rockets.
In The Times (paywall), Catherine Philp reports on concerns that arms for the rebels could end up in the hands of Al-Qaeda, while The Guardian claims a shortage of munitions on both sides could see the Libya conflict grind to a deadlock.
The Independent has switched its focus to Syria, where President Assad dashed hopes of an end to emergency rule yesterday.
06.55 There are a few other major stories knocking around this morning, including the claim in the New York Times that British special forces and MI6 operatives are working alongside CIA operatives on the ground in Libya.
The newspaper, citing "current and former British officials", says dozens of British agents are "directing airstrikes from British jets and gathering intelligence about the whereabouts of Libyan government tank columns, artillery pieces and missile installations".
There were seperate reports that Barack Obama had signed a secret order permitting CIA operations in Libya.
Meanwhile the argument over whether to arm rebels in Libya rumbled on, with David Cameron insisting that doing so could not be ruled out, while in the US Hillary Clinton insisted no decision had been made under strong opposition to the plan from an influential congressman.
06.40 Good morning, and welcome to another live blog bringing you all the latest from Libya and the Middle East as it happens.
There's only one place to start this morning - the defection of Col Gaddafi's foreign minister Moussa Koussa to Britain late last night.
Mr Koussa - who was accused of planning atrocities including the Lockerbie bombing while head of Libya's intelligence service - is now claiming asylum in Britain after renouncing all ties with the regime.
British politicians and leaders hope Mr Koussa's intimate knowledge of Col Gaddafi's secrets, and the symbolic power of the defection of such a senior ally - will spark the disintegration of the Libyan leader's regime.
23:44 Tunisia's prime minister has frozen Col Gaddafi's assets in his country.
23:08 Both the Foreign Office and the Metropolitan Police are refusing to comment on whether Mr Koussa is under armed guard, despite the Daily Telegraph pointing out that the Libyan diplomats expelled earlier today were sent home on the grounds that they were dangerous and they might not be happy with their old chum.
23.00 A senior US official has told AFP that Mr Koussa's resignation was "very significant".
This is a very significant defection and an indication that people around Gaddafi think the writing's on the wall.
22.30 Damien McElroy, the Telegraph's man in Tripoli, has more on the Koussa resignation.
A British official said Mr Koussa's decision to resign represented a significant blow to the Gaddafi regime but warned that there were delicate issues to be worked through in talks with the foreign minister. Late last night it was said to be impossible to predict the outcome of the negotiations.
As head of Libya external intelligence, Mr Koussa was an MI6 asset for almost two decades. He was charged with conducting negotiations to bring Libya in from the cold and giving up its weapons of mass destruction in 2003.
He was notably uncomfortable in making public statements on behalf of the regime in recent weeks. One Libyan official said that Mr Koussa deliberately timed his statements to present a "rational" argument in the immediate aftermath of Col Muammar Gaddafi's rambling statements on national television.
Officials in Tripoli refused to comment on the defection. "I will have something to say later. Right now I am too busy in meetings," said Moussa Ibrahim, the government spokesman.
22.15 The Foreign Office has confirmed that Moussa Koussa has arrived in Britain, resigned his post and is travelling to London for negotiations. A spokesman said:
“We can confirm that Moussa Koussa arrived at Farnborough Airport on 30 March from Tunisia. He travelled here under his own free will. He has told us that he is resigning his post. We are discussing this with him and we will release further detail in due course.
"Moussa Koussa is one of the most senior figures in Gaddafi’s government and his role was to represent the regime internationally – something that he is no longer willing to do.
"We encourage those around Gaddafi to abandon him and embrace a better future for Libya that allows political transition and real reform that meets the aspirations of the Libyan people”.
Moussa Koussa, the (former) Libyan foreign minister.
Our team in Libya:
Rob Crilly
Damien McElroy
Richard Spencer
Colin Freeman