Turkish P.M. pressures Qaddafi to go
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey escalated the pressure on Muammar Qaddafi on Tuesday despite its long-standing ties to the Libyan leader, with its prime minister insisting Qaddafi must immediately leave "for the sake of his country's future."
Qaddafi has ignored calls for change in Libya and instead preferred "blood, tears and pressure against his own people," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a news conference in Istanbul.
"We wish that the Libyan leader immediately withdraw from the administration and leave Libya for his own sake and the sake of his country's future without leading to further destruction, tears and bloodshed," Erdogan said.
He said if Qaddafi did take such a step, diplomats would arrange for his safety and for his departure to a country that will host him. Erdogan did not say whether any country was ready to accept Qaddafi in exile.
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Turkish leaders had previously gently urged Qaddafi to meet demands for change from the rebellious opposition, then suggested that he step down. But Erdogan's comments Tuesday were his strongest public message to Qaddafi yet.
Erdogan said Qaddafi, who lost his second youngest son and three of his grandchildren Saturday in a NATO bombing, must be suffering from "great grief" but must understand that the Libyan people are also suffering under his attacks.
"We want to remind that the Libyan people feel the same grief and urge him to feel their pain and take this inevitable step to prevent further pain," Erdogan said.
NATO said the attack Saturday targeted one of the regime's command and control centers. Qaddafi and his wife were in the compound at the time but escaped unharmed, Libyan officials said, accusing the alliance of trying to assassinate the Libyan leader.
NATO officials have denied they are hunting Qaddafi to break the battlefield stalemate between Qaddafi's troops and rebels trying for the past 10 weeks to depose him. Rebels largely control eastern Libya, while Qaddafi has clung to much of the west, including the capital, Tripoli.
In Brussels on Tuesday, NATO said its warplanes will keep up the pressure on Qaddafi's regime as long as it takes to end the violence in Libya. Italian Navy Vice Admiral Rinaldo Veri said, having disrupting the regime's ground forces on the front lines, NATO was now focusing on cutting Qaddafi's lines of communications with his troops.
On Monday, Turkey temporarily closed its embassy in Tripoli due to deteriorating security and its staff were evacuated to Tunisia, a move that came a day after vandals attacked and burned the British and Italian embassies and a U.N. office there. The U.N. has withdrawn its international staff.
The Turkish consulate in the rebel-controlled city of Benghazi remains open.
Turkey initially balked at the idea of military action in Libya, but as a NATO member it is helping to enforce an arms embargo on Libya and volunteered to lead humanitarian aid efforts.
Last month, Erdogan proposed a peace plan for Libya, urging forces loyal to Qaddafi to withdraw from besieged cities and calling for the establishment of humanitarian aid corridors and comprehensive democratic change.
Turkey has vast trade interests in Libya. Turkish companies have been involved in lucrative construction projects worth billions of dollars, building hospitals, shopping malls and five-star hotels there before the uprising began.
Libyan rebels: Regime forces shelling supply route
Rebels say forces loyal to Qaddafi have been shelling a supply route used to ferry supplies from across the Tunisian border to their hideouts in mountains in western Libya.
Rebels based in the mountains and reached by telephone said Tuesday that loyalist forces have been firing dozens of rockets at the road to disrupt supplies coming from the Dhuheiba crossing. Shelling has caused the road to intermittently close.