WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama dropped the careful condemnation, threats of consequences and the reminders to Moammar Gadhafi’s regime about its responsibility to avoid violence. In their place, he delivered a more forceful message to the Libyan leader: Leave.
Obama called on Gadhafi to step down for the first time on Saturday, saying that the Libyan government must be held accountable for its brutal crackdown on dissenters.
“The president stated that when a leader’s only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now,” the White House said.
Obama’s call for Gadhafi to relinquish his 41-year grip on power came the same day the United Nations Security Council imposed an arms embargo and other sanctions against Libya, and urged UN member countries to freeze the assets of Gadhafi, four of his sons and a daughter.
Latest reports from Libya said hundreds of armed anti-government forces backed by rebel troops who control Zawiya, the city closest to the capital Tripoli, appeared on Sunday to be readying to repel an expected offensive by forces loyal to Gadhafi who have surrounded the city.
An Associated Press reporter who reached Zawiya, 50 kilometers west of Tripoli, confirmed the rebels were in control of the center of the city of 200,000. They have tanks and antiaircraft guns mounted on pickup trucks.
In London, the government revoked the diplomatic immunity in Britain of Gadhafi and his sons, and also urged the Libyan leader to step down.
“Of course it is time for Colonel Gadhafi to go,” Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a BBC interview.
In the strongest comments yet from Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his Libyan counterpart Musa Kusa by telephone that Moscow condemned Libya’s use of force against civilians.
“Sergei Lavrov underlined that the use of armed force by the Libyan authorities against the civilian population is unacceptable,” the Russian foreign ministry said.
In Rome, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the downfall of Gadhafi “is inevitable … I think we are at a point of no return.”
The White House statement summarizing Obama’s telephone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel came as Libya’s embattled regime passed out guns to civilian supporters and sent armed patrols around its capital to stave off the rebellion.
Until Saturday, US officials held back from fully and openly throwing all their support behind the protest movement, insisting that it was for the Libyan people to determine how they want to be led.
The refrain echoed the public position maintained by the administration during the Egypt crisis, when the United States gradually dropped its support for long-time ally Hosni Mubarak but never explicitly demanded his resignation after nearly three decades in power.
Explaining the change, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Libyans “have made themselves clear” that they wanted Gadhafi out.
“Gadhafi has lost the confidence of his people and he should go without further bloodshed and violence,” she said in a statement.
The tougher tone sets the stage for Clinton’s trip on Sunday to Geneva, where she will confer with foreign policy chiefs from Russia, the European Union and other global powers on how to drive home the message to a Libyan government determined to cling to power.
Obama and Merkel strategized on how the world should respond to the violence that, according to some officials, has killed thousands of people. Clinton spoke with the European Union’s top diplomat Catherine Ashton to coordinate the international pressure.
Military action
Acting on its own, the Obama administration announced a new measure on Saturday when Clinton said the United States was revoking visas for senior Libyan officials and their immediate family members. New travel applications from these individuals will be rejected, she said.
The visa ban followed the administration’s moves on Friday to freeze all Libyan assets in the United States that belong to Gadhafi, his government and four of his children.
But it is still unclear how far the United States—and its international allies—might have to go to convince Gadhafi that his four-decade reign in Libya must end.
American military action is unlikely, although the Obama administration hasn’t ruled out participation in an internationally administered protective no-fly zone.