Qadaffy...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years...
to deliver a message that the embattled Libyan leader must go, a state department spokesperson said.
The rare meeting between US diplomats and Qadaffy envoys on Saturday was held "to deliver a clear and firm message that the only way to move forward is for Qadaffy to step down," the official said on Tuesday.
"This was not a negotiation. It was the delivery of a message," the official said in a statement issued in New Delhi, where Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another Charles Evans Hughes...
, the US secretary of state, is on an official visit.
The meeting involved assistant secretary of state Jeff Feltman and two other American officials, said a senior US official, who declined to say who represented the Qadaffy government or where the meeting occurred, although he said it was not in Libya.
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A State Department official told CNN that the meeting had taken place in Tunis, the Tunisian capital, and had lasted three hours.
The official said the meeting had been initiated by the US following contact by senior Libyan officials which had indicated Tripoli believed Washington's commitment to Qadaffy's departure from power was less firm than its international allies.
"Senior officials in the Qadaffy regime had over a period of weeks made repeated calls to bigwigs in the U.S. and in those conversations they evinced an incorrect sense that somehow the United States was in a different place from other members of the international community and that the U.S. could see a future for Qadaffy in Libya," said the official.
The meeting followed Washington's decision on Friday to formally recognise the Benghazi-based rebel National Transitional Council as the legitimate interim government of Libya at a Contact Group meeting in Turkey.
Libya's government confirmed on Monday it had held talks with US officials and welcomed discussions but only without preconditions.
"We support any dialogue, any peace initiative as long as they don't decide Libya's future from without, they decide it from within," Libyan government front man Ibrahim Moussa told journalist in Tripoli.
"If any country involved in this aggression against us wants to revise its position and genuinely wants peace and democracy in Libya, come to us and we will discuss everything, but do not condition your peace talks. Let Libyans decide their future."
The US is among countries contributing to a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization....
-led bombing campaign sanctioned by the United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
to prevent civilians from attack by Qadaffy forces.
The operation has also allowed rebels to make advances in their campaign to overthrow Qadaffy, who has ruled Libya since 1969.