Italy on Monday became the third country to recognize the opposition Transitional National Council as Libya’s legitimate government, and Britain said it would supply communications equipment to rebels battling forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.
Opposition leaders crossed paths with a Gadhafi representative pushing in Europe for a diplomatic solution that would allow Gadhafi or his sons to remain in power. Acting Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul Ati al- Obeidi arrived in Turkey for talks with that country’s government, a day after he met with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in Athens.
Turkey and Greece, both NATO members, have said they want to listen to proposals from both sides on a way to end the violence. Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas said after meeting with al-Obeidi that “there is mobility, and there is a chance, albeit small, for a politico-diplomatic solution.”
But Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the “proposals . . . to end the crisis” presented by al-Obeidi in Greece were “not credible.”
Among the cease-fire proposals al-Obeidi is believed to have transmitted was one calling for Gadhafi to give control of the western portion of the country to his sons, an option that Frattini also dismissed.
“Any solution for the future of Libya has a precondition: that Gadhafi’s regime leaves . . . that Gadhafi himself and the family leave the country,” Frattini told reporters after meeting in Rome on Monday with Ali al-Essawi, the rebel council’s foreign-policy representative.
Al-Essawi said any action aimed at dividing Libya “is unacceptable, as is any policy initiative that does not lead to the end of the Gadhafi regime,” according to a statement by the Italian Foreign Ministry.
Italy’s recognition follows that of France and Qatar. The Obama administration has resisted recognizing the council, saying it does not know enough about the opposition.
U.S. officials have become increasingly resigned to the possibility of a military standoff on the ground, with opposition forces, under the protection of coalition airstrikes and a no- fly zone, holding the eastern part of the country while Gadhafi’s forces remain in control of the west.
In eastern Libya, there were reports that rebels had retaken most of the oil town of Brega, the current front line in the seesawing battle for control of a stretch of coastal towns strung out between Ajdabiya, about 100 miles south of Benghazi, and Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte 253 miles to the west.
In a statement to Parliament on Monday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the nation’s National Security Council had decided to supply the rebels with communications equipment but still declined to provide arms for the opposition.
