WASHINGTON/TRIPOLI - Muammar Gaddafi will inevitably leave power, said the US President Barack Obama, as NATO stepped up its bombing of long weeks of the targets of the Government and said Friday, he sank eight Libyan warships.
Obama was speaking in an address on the Middle East, where a series of Governments in this year of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt and has inspired a revolt by three months in Libya which aims to overthrow Gaddafi.
"Time is working against Gaddafi." There is no control on his country. The opposition organized an interim Council legitimate and credible, "Obama said in Washington Thursday.
"When Gaddafi inevitably of leaves or is forced to power, will end decades of provocation and proceed with the transition towards a democratic Libya", he said, defending his decision to take military action against the Government of the Libyan leader.
Secretary General of the NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who said military pressure and political were weakening Gaddafi and would eventually topple him echoed his comments.
The Libyan leader has remained defiant.
"Obama is still delirious," said the spokesman for the Libyan Government Mussa Ibrahim. "He believes the lies that his own Government and media across the world...". It is not Obama who decides if Muammar leaves the Libya or not. It is the Libyan people. ?
Acting under the mandate of the United Nations, allies of NATO, including the France, Britain and the United States are the air strikes whose purpose is to stop Kadhafi using military force against civilians.
The NATO planes sank eight ships of war, in attacks at night on the ports of Tripoli Al Khums and Surt, the alliance said in a statement.
"In view of the increasing use of the naval assets, NATO had no choice but to take decisive action to protect the civilian population of the Libya and NATO forces at sea, said Rear Admiral Russell Harding, Commander Assistant of mission Libyan of NATO."
Libyan officials took journalists to the port of Tripoli, where a small vessel spread of smoke and flames and cast doubt on whether boats targeted by NATO had been involved in the fight against.
Mohammad Ahmad Rashed, General Director of the port of Tripoli, said six ships had been hit by missiles.
Boats, five belonging to the coast guard and a larger ship of war, had been in maintenance since before the beginning of the fighting, he told journalists, adding that the port was still functional and able to handle commercial traffic.
NATO bombs struck in Tripoli, hometown of Sirte Gaddafi and Zlitan is the capital, State TV said late Thursday.
Rebels control eastern Libya and pockets to the West, but the conflict has reached a deadlock as rebels tried to advance the bastion of Kadhafi in Tripoli is at a standstill.
Western Governments, under pressure from skeptical voters, rely on the administration of Gaddafi to collapse.
"We have significantly degraded Gaddafi war machine.". And now, we see the results, the opposition has gained ground, "Rasmussen said at a press conference in the Slovak capital, Bratislava.
"I am confident that a combination of military pressure and increased pressure policy and support for the opposition will be eventually lead to the collapse of the regime."
LIBYA GADDAFI TELEVISION
Libyan State TV showed pictures of Kadhafi meeting a Libyan politician in Tripoli. Government spokesman Ibrahim said that the politician had been in a delegation that met Russian officials in Moscow this week to explore the possibilities of a ceasefire.
Sequences perform a zoom on a television screen in the showroom date of Thursday, displayed in the corner. Gaddafi was wearing a Brown dress with a hat and sunglasses.
Kadhafi was the last time on 11 may, when State TV showed him the tribal leaders for meeting in Tripoli. NATO bombarded his compound the following day and a day later TV broadcast a clip in which he mocked NATO and said that the alliance could not kill.
The last few days have seen a flurry of diplomatic activity focusing on a possible cease-fire agreement.
But the Western powers are likely to emphasize their determination to maintain pressure on Kadhafi when heads of State of the Group of eight industrialized nations meet on 27 and 28 May.
An attempt to put pressure on Tripoli, the EU is hardening of sanctions by blacklisting some ports Libyan to prevent oil exports and imports of fuel, a Western diplomatic source told Reuters.
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