MOSCOW, June 13 (RIA Novosti) – Libyan government will not hold talks with anybody who demands the resignation of the country’s embattled leader, Muammar Gaddafi, Xinhua said on Monday citing Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim.
“I do not encourage anybody who pushes for Gaddafi’s resignation. Only Libyan people have the right to determine Gaddafi’s fate,” Xinhua quoted Ibrahim as saying.
British and the U.S. leaders have repeatedly said that Gaddafi had lost the legitimacy and should step down.
The UN Security Council adopted a resolution imposing a no-fly zone over Libya on March 17, paving the way for a military operation against embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi which began two days later. The command of the operation was shifted from a U.S.-led international coalition to NATO in late March.
The revolt which began in mid-February in Libya against Gaddafi’s forty-year rule has already claimed thousands of lives, with Gaddafi’s troops maintaining their combat capabilities despite NATO airstrikes against them.