Gadhafi 'Finished,' Italy Says amid Stalemate
Moammar Gadhafi's regime is "finished," Italy's foreign minister said Tuesday in the Libyan rebel stronghold after NATO warplanes struck Tripoli and African efforts for a ceasefire stalled.
"The Gadhafi regime is finished, he must leave office, he must leave the country," Franco Frattini told a joint news conference in Benghazi with Ali al-Essawi, the rebels' foreign affairs chief.
"His aides have left, he has no international support, the G8 leaders reject him, he must go."
Frattini was speaking ahead of a ceremony to inaugurate a new Italian consulate in the eastern city, in another major blow to Gadhafi after NATO insisted his "reign of terror" is nearing an end.
"We must continue our military pressure (and) strengthen our economic sanctions to ensure that the movement of the Libyan people is irreversible," he said.
Italy, the former colonial ruler of Libya and strategic economic partner with Moammar Gadhafi's regime, has joined international calls led by Britain, France and the United States for the Libyan leader to go.
"In coming here, I have fully recognized the fact that the NTC truly represents the Libyan people," Frattini said, referring to the rebels' National Transitional Council.
"I underline our full support for the NTC ... which is why we are opening a consulate in Benghazi, having closed our embassy in Tripoli," he added.
NATO pounded Tripoli earlier on Tuesday, only hours after South African President Jacob Zuma left Libya's capital having failed to close the gap between Gadhafi and rebels fighting to oust him since February.
Libya's state-run Jamahiriya TV cited a military source as saying "NATO colonialist crusaders" targeted military and civilian sites in Tripoli and Tajura, causing deaths and damage.
From the center of Tripoli, which NATO has been attacking for several weeks now, Agence France Presse reported warplanes flying overhead and distant explosions around midnight (2200 GMT).
In its latest operational update, NATO said Tuesday it struck four military sites in the vicinity of Tripoli, including missile launchers, a vehicle storage facility and a radar.
Elsewhere it took out a command and control node and several tanks, truck-mounted guns and other military vehicles in and around Misrata, the main rebel-held city in western Libya.
Zuma said raids by NATO, which is enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya and protecting civilians from a government crackdown under a U.N. mandate, were undermining African mediation efforts.
South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane called for an immediate ceasefire after Zuma said Gadhafi was "ready" to implement an African Union peace plan already rejected by NATO and the rebels.
"Consistent with the decision of the AU on Libya, we reiterate our call for immediate ceasefire that is verifiable and encourage the warring parties to begin a dialogue to a democratic transition," she told parliament.
In Tripoli, Zuma said Gadhafi was "ready to implement the roadmap of the AU" and that he had insisted "all Libyans be given a chance to talk among themselves" to determine the country's future.
However the South African leader did not publicly discuss the key obstacle, Gadhafi's departure, which the rebels insisted on as the starting point to any ceasefire agreement.
His office said later Gadhafi was not prepared to leave his country.
