Downing Street Says

The Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told journalists that there would be an update from the Foreign Secretary this afternoon. The Foreign Office had confirmed over the weekend that officials would be meeting with the Scottish Crown Office later today to take forward their request to meet Musa Kusa, who remained at a safe location.

The Foreign Secretary was also meeting with the Chairman of the African Union Commission this morning. It was an opportunity to reach out to regional leaders, and they would also discuss the situation in the Ivory Coast.

Asked if the Prime Minister thought that Qadhafi was desperately seeking an exit strategy, the PMS said that there had been lots of reports of envoys and the regime reaching out in a number of ways, but he was not able to give a view on the voracity of those reports. We had been clear that the next steps should be a genuine ceasefire and an end to violence.

Put that it had been suggested that the Prime Minister was in talks with Greece and Qatar in terms of an exit strategy for Qadhafi, the PMS said that our position, as set out before, was that an exit strategy for Qadhafi was not something we were involved in pursuing.

Asked if the Prime Minister had spoken to the Greek Prime Minister, the PMS said that the Prime Minister had had a recent conversation with the Greek Prime Minister but it predated the reports of Qadhafi exit strategy discussions.

Asked if the Prime Minister had considered asking former Prime Minister Tony Blair to speak to Qadhafi, the PMS said that there had been no recent contacts.

Asked if the Prime Minister was happy for Scottish authorities to talk to Musa Kusa, the PMS said that the Prime Minister had answered this question last week. If they wanted to speak to Musa Kusa then it was a judgement they would have to make and we stood ready to assist them in any way we could.

Asked if the UK Government would be content for Qadhafi’s sons to be a part of the governing future of Libya, the PMS said that we had been clear that Qadhafi should go, and in terms of other members of that regime it was for the Libyan people to judge what a suitable government would be. We would not impose solutions on Libya.

Asked if the Prime Minister was convinced that a no-fly zone could be funded for six months, the PMS said that the six month figure referred to statements from the RAF, and looking at the full quotes in that context they had been talking about planning assumptions for the no-fly zone. Clearly they were thinking about different scenarios and planning on that basis, which was the right thing to do. It would be funded from the reserve, like all military operations, which the Chancellor had made clear.

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» Monday, April 4, 2011

Libya

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