Libyan Delegation in Venezuela to Find Peaceful Solution
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced Tuesday that a delegation from Libya arrived this week in Venezuela to evaluate peaceful solutions to the conflict the North African nation has been suffering for the past two months.
Chavez informed that Libyan leader Muammar Al-Gaddafi sent a delegation to Venezuela to seek international support and establish talks to stop the bombing campaign being executed by nations from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“Just because they do not like Gaddafi and want to take over Libya’s oil and water, they are bombing barracks, schools and communities. Who has given them that right? We are determined to find a peaceful solution to the war lived today by the Libyan people”, said Chavez during an encounter with Venezuelan workers.
PEACE PROPOSAL
Last month, Chavez proposed that an international commission should visit Libya to seek negotiations between rebels and the government, but the idea did not gain traction and was rejected by Western powers, although Gaddafi himself expressed acceptance.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said regional foreign ministers meeting in Caracas on Tuesday had discussed ways to end the conflict through diplomacy and dialogue. He also stressed that Libya’s national unity must be preserved.
“(We worked on) a proposal geared toward the need to overcome the inertia of the war that has been imposed and makes a call for understanding and to increase efforts to stop the barbarity”, Maduro told reporters.
The African Union is also seeking a non-military solution to the violence in Libya that calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities followed by a transitional period and political dialogue.
