Paris, 22 August 2011
With developments in the military situation on the ground and the increasing number of defections from his side confirming that the end of Gaddafi and his regime is now inevitable and imminent, President Sarkozy utterly condemns Gaddafi’s irresponsible and desperate calls for a continuation of the fighting whatever the cost.
President Sarkozy calls on those forces still loyal to the regime to turn their backs forthwith on their leader’s blind, criminal cynicism by implementing an immediate ceasefire, laying down their weapons and handing themselves over to the legitimate Libyan authorities.
President Sarkozy, who has just had a telephone conversation with the Prime Minister of the National Transitional Council (NTC), Mahmoud Jibril, once again hailed the determination and courage of the NTC’s leaders and fighters and of all those Libyans who have risen up. He assured him that France will continue to support the NTC and every Libyan who stands alongside it, in order to achieve the liberation of their country from oppression and dictatorship and to help them realize their aspirations to freedom and dignity. He calls on the Libyan people to rally around the legitimate Libyan authorities.
Now that a transition phase is about to begin, President Sarkozy calls on all Libyans to approach it in a spirit of reconciliation and unity, in order to lay the foundations for a new, democratic Libya that respects the rights of all, where the Libyan people as a whole and individually can feel represented.
President Sarkozy invited the NTC’s Prime Minister to come to France on Wednesday.
Taken from the website of the Embassy of France to the United Kingdom.
Other statements can be viewed here.
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