LONDON: Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Tuesday that participants at a London conference on Libya had unanimously agreed that Moamer Qadhafi should leave the country. Although the final statement from the talks made no mention of exile for the Libyan leader, Frattini told AFP: "A consensus has been reached, participants at the meeting unanimously said that Qadhafi must leave the country.
"Beyond that, it depends on the country which may offer to welcome Qadhafi. There is as yet no formal proposal; no country has formulated such a plan, even the African countries which may be ready to make one." Frattini said that exile did not mean immunity, saying: "We cannot, we do not want to say that because immunity would be in violation of the Rome Statute" which established the International Criminal Court (ICC). Asked how the Libyan situation would be resolved, he said: "The precondition is that he (Qadhafi) leaves the country." At the weekend, Frattini set out the broad outlines of a diplomatic plan to resolve the Libyan crisis that could include exile for Qadhafi, although the rebels fighting his regime said they wanted to see him tried for war crimes. The final statement from the London meeting said the more than 35 countries and the UN and NATO chiefs had agreed that "Qadhafi and his regime have completely lost legitimacy and will be held responsible for their actions". It said it was up to the Libyan people to decide their future, a position echoed by French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who told reporters: "It is up to the Libyans to get rid of him." Speaking after the conference, British Foreign Secretary William Hague repeated his assertion that Qadhafi should appear before the ICC but did not rule a possible exile plan when asked.
"We're not engaged in the United Kingdom in looking for somewhere for him to go; that doesn't exclude others doing so," Hague said. He added: "We all agreed that Qadhafi and his regime had completely lost legitimacy and would be held accountable for their actions. That is extremely strong international pressure for him to go." Hague insisted: "There is no future for Libya with Qadhafi in charge, or trying to hang on to power there." US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also indicated that Qadhafi could leave as part of a political solution to the fighting. She said a UN special envoy would soon head to Libya to "urge Qadhafi to implement a real ceasefire to withdraw from those areas he has taken by force, to look for a political resolution, which could include his leaving the country". Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, whose country was the first Arab nation to join international action to enforce a UN no-fly zone over Libya, urged Qadhafi to leave the country to avoid any further violence.
"We urge Qadhafi and his people to leave and not to cause any more bloodshed. I think this is the only solution," he told reporters. He added: "Right now we do not see any indication of that but this hope which we offer now might not be on the table in the next few days.
"I'm not warning anybody here but I'm trying to stop the bloodshed as soon as possible."
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