AhlulBayt News Agency

source : Al Jazeera
Friday

29 April 2011

7:30:00 PM
239111

No one can force me to leave Libya: Gaddafi

Defiant Libyan leader says he will not leave country and is prepared for a ceasefire only if all sides are involved.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has said that he will not leave Libya and that he is still prepared to enter a ceasefire but only if all sides are involved.

"I'm not leaving my country," he said in a live address on state television in the early hours of Saturday morning.

"No one can force me to leave my country and no one can tell me not to fight for my country."
Gaddafi said that he was still ready to enter a ceasefire but that all sides must be involved and not only his own forces fighting against rebels in the east.

"[Libya] is ready until now to enter a ceasefire ... but a ceasefire cannot be from one side," he said in his live speech.

"We were the first to welcome a ceasefire and we were the first to accept a ceasefire ... but the crusader NATO attack has not stopped."

The Libyan leader also called for negotiations with NATO powers to end the air strikes on Libya.
"We did not attack them or cross the sea ... why are they attacking us? Let us negotiate with you, the countries that attack us. Let us negotiate."

Gaddafi added that if it was oil the coalition countries were after there was no problem in negotiating contracts.

If NATO powers were not interested in talks, however, the Libyan people would not surrender and were willing to die resisting what he called its "terrorist" attacks.

He warned NATO that its forces would die if it invaded by land.

"Either freedom or death. No surrender. No fear. No departure," he said.

Gaddafi said the NATO airstrikes and naval patrols went beyond the United Nations mandate and urged Russia, China and friendly African and Latin American countries to press the Security Council to take a fresh look at the resolution.

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