Gaddafi: “Transitional Council” is below us

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi announced on Friday that the recognition of the Transitional Council, which represents the Libyan rebels, by international and regional powers, is “is worth nothing” to the Libyan people. Addressing the powers that recognize the Transitional Council Gaddafi stated: “Recognize the so-called Transitional Council a million times. All your decisions mean nothing. All your decisions are beneath the feet of the Libyan people. Hell is in your decisions!” He made the statement amid thousands of his supporters who gathered in Zlitan, 150km east of Tripoli. The international and regional powers that participated in the meeting in Istanbul on Friday, in the framework of the International Contact Group on Libya, recognized the National Transitional Council, which represents the rebels, as a “legitimate government authority” in the country, according to the final statement of the Group’s meeting in Istanbul. In the statement made by the Contact Group it was said: “Until a transitional authority is established, the participants agree to deal with the National Transitional Council as the legitimate government authority in Libya.” In response, Gaddafi said through loudspeakers in a cynical tone, that he could not imagine the day that “the heroic Libyan people are represented by a handful of traitors who opened the doors of Benghazi and Misurata to the Crusaders.” In the fourth message to his supporters since the 1st July, he said: “No one can represent the Libyan people, not even Gaddafi himself”, adding: “I have with me five million Libyans prepared to testify this. But so far I have not given the order to grovel… I am giving NATO and the invaders an opportunity to terminate their operation, and for traitors to surrender or to flee quickly from Libya.” Gaddafi attacked French President Nicolas Sarkozy once again, saying: “Oh Sarkozy, you are stupid and crazy, Oh infidel that has destroyed France’s relations, and the interests of France and Libya.” He added: “We want to establish relations with the people of France, Italy, and Britain, but the leaders of these countries are the enemies of humanity, and they want to destroy Europe and the Mediterranean through a crusade against the security of the Libyan people.” The Libyan leader on Thursday called Sarkozy “a war criminal…who has distorted the history of France.” He also described him as “suffering from a mental disorder.” The French Foreign Ministry responded on Friday by saying: “These statements represent the audacity and the isolation of the dictator, who continues to carry out massacres of the Libyan people, and has no other solution but to retreat.” France was the second country after Britain to join in air strikes against Gaddafi’s forces, which remain locked in bloody battles with the rebels.