Italy recognizes rebel-held Libya

TRIPOLI, Libya – Italy formally recognized the rebel government of eastern Libya, dealing yet another blow to the beleaguered regime of Col. Moammar Gadhafi as it attempts to maneuver its way out of its worst crisis in four decades.

A government spokesman declared late Monday that the Gadhafi regime would be willing to consider a referendum and other drastic reforms so long as Gadhafi retained a leadership role before the vote. The Libyan government has also reinvigorated diplomatic efforts, dispatching a diplomat to Greece, Turkey and Malta after failing to gain a decisive victory on the battlefield against rebels in the east or emerge from international isolation.

“He led the revolution in Libya. He has symbolic significance for the people in Libya,” government spokesman Musa Ibrahim said. “How Libya is governed is a different matter. What kind of political system implemented in the country is a different matter. This is negotiable.”

Gadhafi’s violent suppression of protests spurred by recent revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt sparked a civil war that has divided Libya into a rebel-held east and a western region largely controlled by Gadhafi loyalists. The U.N. authorized a no-fly zone and airstrikes on Gadhafi’s forces as they were about to pounce on the de facto rebel capital of Benghazi last month.

But after advancing against Gadhafi’s forces with the aid of airstrikes, the rebels were beaten back and are now locked in a stalemate at Port Brega. Rebel fighters continued to be kept at bay on the edge of the oil city that Gadhafi’s forces retook last week. Some rebel officials have acknowledged they are now trying to hold on to territory rather than mount another push on Gadhafi’s territory.

With the armed conflict proving inconclusive, rebels and Gadhafi have sought to broaden their diplomatic contacts in recent days.

A Western former official with knowledge of the Libyan government said officials in Tripoli, the capital, were desperately seeking a solution that would satisfy the West and end the foreign military effort.

Rebel spokesman Mustafa Gheriani rejected outright the long-floated proposal, reported in Western media Monday, that Gadhafi’s son Seif Islam could manage the country in a transition to democracy. “These guys have so much blood on their hands,” Gheriani said. “What makes you think the Libyan people will accept them?”