Qaddafi Envoy Meets Greek Leader; U.S. Extends Air Raids

April 04, 2011, 2:55 AM EDT

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By Peter S. Green and Maria Petrakis

(Updates crude price in fourth paragraph. See EXTRA and MET for more on unrest in the Mideast and North Africa.)

April 4 (Bloomberg) -- Muammar Qaddafi’s acting foreign minister met with Greece’s prime minister in what the government in Athens described as an attempt to find a political solution to hostilities in Libya.

“It appears that the regime is also seeking a solution,” Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas said in a statement, referring to Qaddafi’s government, after Abdul Ati al-Obeidi met with George Papandreou. The talks followed “a series of contacts over recent days” involving Greek and Libyan officials, including the countries’ prime ministers, which led to al-Obeidi’s Athens trip, Droutsas said. Al-Obeidi also plans to visit Malta and Turkey, he said.

The talks come as rebel forces have been struggling for more than a month to take and hold strategic cities in the center of the country. The U.S., U.K. and other allies have stepped up diplomacy as well as air strikes in an attempt to avoid a stalemate that might draw NATO members further into the six-week-old conflict. Fighting continued in the besieged rebel- held city of Misrata on Sunday, as pro-Qaddafi forces fired mortars and tank shells, the Associated Press reported, citing a hospital official.

The Libyan rebellion against Qaddafi’s rule has sent oil prices up about 25 percent since it began, heightening concerns over Middle East supplies. Crude for May delivery gained as much as 80 cents to $108.74 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since Sept. 24, 2008, and was at $108.30 at 11:56 a.m. Singapore time.

Combat Missions

The U.S. Defense Department said that, at NATO’s request, American strike aircraft will continue to fly combat missions through tomorrow, according to a release via Twitter.

NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said that, because of poor weather over the last few days, the Atlantic alliance asked the U.S. to push back its transition to a purely supporting role in the campaign to enforce a UN-mandated no-fly zone and to protect civilians from attacks.

The U.S. plans to have its attack aircraft on standby, ready to resume flights if necessary, while U.S. command and control aircraft and Navy ships remain in action around Libya, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in March 31 testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Papandreou has talked with the prime ministers of the U.K., Turkey, Qatar and Libya since April 1, his office said in a statement yesterday.

‘Serious Attempt’

“It is necessary for there to be a serious attempt for peace, for stability in the region,” the Greek foreign minister said.

The U.K. sent a second team of diplomats to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, in eastern Libya, to meet with opposition leaders there, according to an e-mailed statement from the British Foreign Office.

African Union Commission Chairman Jean Ping will meet with European and NATO officials in London and Brussels through April 5 “to further explore ways and means of resolving the crisis in Libya,” the AU said in a release.

A son of Qaddafi, Saif al-Islam, is proposing a plan in which his father would relinquish power to his son, the New York Times reported yesterday, citing an unidentified diplomat with close ties to the government. Neither Qaddafi nor the rebels appear ready to accept the proposal, the newspaper cited the diplomat as saying.

‘No Prospect’

“There’s no prospect on anyone’s list of acceptable outcomes that Qaddafi stay,” said Richard Murphy, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia and an adjunct fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

“Is he really ready to hand over to those sons and get out of the country? It strikes me as unlikely at this point,” Murphy said in an interview. “I don’t think he’s given up on running the country.”

The conflict in Libya is the bloodiest of uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa that have ousted longtime rulers in Egypt and Tunisia and sparked protests in Bahrain, Yemen and Syria.

The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council said yesterday that it would hold talks with Yemen’s government and opposition parties in an effort to overcome that country’s political crisis, according to a statement distributed at the end of a GCC foreign ministers meeting in Riyadh yesterday.

--With assistance from Alison Fitzgerald and Zaid Sabah Abd Alhamid in Washington, James Neuger in Brussels, Zahra Hankir, Zainab Fattah and Tamara Walid in Dubai and Scott Hamilton. Mike Harrison and Caroline Alexander in London. Editor: Bob Drummond, Louis Meixler, Ben Holland.

To contact the reporters on this story: Maria Petrakis in Athens at mpetrakis@bloomberg.net; Peter S. Green in New York at psgreen@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net