Monday, February 28, 2011

International Pressure on Qaddafi Intensifies

TRIPOLI, Libya — An international campaign to force Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi out of office gathered pace on Monday as the European Union adopted an arms embargo and other sanctions, the opposition showed increasing signs of organization in the east, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton bluntly told the Libyan leader to surrender power "now, without further violence or delay."

With the rebel and loyalist forces locked in an increasingly tense stand-off on the ground, the prime ministers of France and Britain echoed Mrs. Clinton's call for Colonel Qaddafi to go, Germany proposed a 60-day ban on financial transactions, and a spokeswoman for Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said that contacts were being established with the opposition.

Italy's foreign minister on Sunday suspended a nonaggression treaty with Libya on the grounds that the Libyan state "no longer exists," while Mrs. Clinton said the United States was reaching out to the rebels to "offer any kind of assistance."

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