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Coming immediately after Moussa Koussa's defection, the flight to Egypt of veteran diplomat Ali Abdussalam Treki, 73, is known to have further escalated tension in the upper reaches of Gheddafi's regime in Tripoli. There is tangible evidence of increased security at key Secretariats (ministries) in an evident bid to prevent Secretaries (ministers) and their top officials and aides from leaving Tripoli. According to reliable sources, al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmudi, 65, Secretary of the General People's Committee (prime minister) and Shukri Ghanem, 69, chairman of the National Oil Company (NOC) and al-Mahmudi's predecessor as prime minister (June 2003 - March 2006), are not being allowed to move freely, ostensibly for their own safety. Ghanem yesterday personally denied rumours that he had left the country.
Meanwhile the Arab League is distancing itself from any initiative aimed at arming the opposition to Gheddafi. Ambassador Hesham Youssef, chef de cabinet to the Secretary General of the Arab League said that the League was of the view that arming the rebels would go beyond the terms of the UN Security Council resolution 1973. The resolution, he emphasised, only authorised the imposition of a No-Fly zone to end the military attack of Qaddafi against rebels. "Our objective,” he told Al Ahram Online, “is to protect civilians and not to meddle into the Libyan affairs".
A different position is being taken by Qatar. In a television interview yesterday (Thursday, March 31), Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani said that the Arab League, many of whose members also face revolts, failed to live up to its duty to protect civilians in Libya. He hoped the 22-member organisation would now meet its responsibility "amidst the ongoing changes" sweeping the region. Qatar has joined the coalition intervention under a UN Security Council resolution after the Arab League backed a No-Fly zone Libya. "The suffering of civilians in Libya led the international community to intervene because of the inaction of the Arab League, which was supposed to assume the role," said Sheikh Hamad (AFP). Qatar has officially recognised Libya’s Transitional National Council. [http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/9012.aspx]
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