Gaddafi losing grip on power

By Samer al-Atrush

BENGHAZI: Muammar Gaddafi’s grip on Libya slipped further today as the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on his regime and US President Barack Obama bluntly told him it was time to step down.

The Security Council unanimously ordered a travel and assets ban, an immediate arms embargo and a crimes against humanity investigation into the bloodshed blamed on the Libyan leader.

Obama’s most direct demand yet that Gaddafi step down came a day after the embattled Libyan leader offered to arm civilian supporters.

“When a leader’s only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now,” the White House said.

The impending showdown in Libya came as elsewhere in a turbulent Middle East swept by a wave of popular unrest, powerful tribes abandoned Yemen’s increasingly embattled ruler and Bahrain’s king reshuffled his cabinet.

The escalating revolt against Gaddafi has emboldened tens of thousands of protesters across the Arab world to ramp up demands for historic reforms.

Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya’s deputy UN ambassador, who was one of the first to turn against Gaddafi, said the sanctions would boost the popular uprising.

“It goes without saying that this resolution is moral support for the people who are resisting and being fired upon by the regime,” he told the Security Council.

After protests in Tunisia and Egypt forced out longtime leaders Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak, Gaddafi and Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh now face the most serious threats to their decades-long grip on power.

But Ben Ali’s ouster has solved few problems in Tunisia, where three people were killed in clashes between anti-government demonstrators and security forces after a second day of unrest in the capital Tunis.

Civil war
In the Egyptian capital Cairo, some 2,000 protesters marched into Tahrir Square to call for a new government, denouncing violence by authorities after military police beat and arrested demonstrators.

Protesters demanded the replacement of the government of Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq, which includes several ministers from the toppled regime.

In Libya, Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television protesters trying to topple his father were being manipulated and the situation had “opened the doors to a civil war”.

“Our Arab brothers pay monthly salaries to journalists and tell them to write and incite against Libya, write against Muammar Gaddafi,” he said.

People in “three-quarters of the country are living in peace” he said, denying that African mercenaries had been recruited to crack down on protesters.

In a rabble-rousing speech that presaged a bloody battle for the capital, Gaddafi told frenzied supporters in Tripoli’s Green Square on Friday the rebels, who control almost the entire east of Libya, would be defeated.

Libya’s former justice minister told Al-Jazeera a transitional government would lead the country for three months to prepare for elections.

Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who quit Gaddafi’s regime last Monday in protest at the killing of demonstrators, said the transitional government would include military as well as civilian representatives.

Cabinet reshuffle

Protests sweeping the Middle East have railed against poor public infrastructure and demanded broader political reforms in some of the world’s most corrupt and tightly censored countries.

In Yemen, pressure on Saleh to resign intensified as the leaders of two of the country’s most powerful tribes joined the anti-regime movement, one day after the biggest protests yet against the government.

According to an AFP tally based on reports by medics and witnesses, at least 19 people have been killed in almost daily clashes at protests since Feb 16. Amnesty International puts the Yemen death toll at 27.

In Bahrain, the king reshuffled his cabinet, under pressure as opposition leader Hassan Mashaima returned home from self-imposed exile in Britain and thousands of protesters marched to demand the Sunni rulers stand down.

Mashaima was greeted by thousands of cheering protesters in Pearl Square, the epicentre of anti-regime demonstrations, and called for unity.

In Iraq, which saw its first significant protests in Friday’s “Day of Rage” that left 16 people dead, the top Shi’ite Muslim cleric urged politicians to slash their benefits and improve public services.

The cabinet today was due to discuss issues raised in Friday’s protests.

In Algeria, several hundred riot police blocked a new opposition attempt to stage an anti-government march in the centre of Algiers, two days after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s regime lifted a state of emergency.

And in Morocco’s largest city Casablanca, almost 1,000 people rallied amid a heavy police presence to demand political reforms and a new constitution.

- AFP