TRIPOLI – Libya’s government said on Tuesday it was ready to negotiate reforms provided embattled leader Moammer Gaddafi was not forced out, as loyalists troops pushed rebel fighters back from the key oil port of Brega and the US military withdrew its fighter jets from the international air campaign in Libya.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)-led air strikes had destroyed 30 percent of the regime’s military capacity since the United Nations (UN)-backed bombing campaign started on March 19, an alliance commander said, even as the rebels suffered their first significant loss of territory in almost a week.
Meanwhile, a one-million-barrel supertanker docked in the rebel-held port of Tobruk to pick up the first oil cargo for 18 days, the specialist shipping newsletter Lloyd’s List said, in a big boost to the anti-Gaddafi forces’ finances.
Government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told journalists in Tripoli that everything except the departure of Kadhafi was negotiable, saying he was a unifying figure after ruling the nation for four decades.
