Excerpt
Western and Arab leaders are meeting Friday in Turkey to look for a way to oust Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi and assess how that country’s rebel leaders plan to run the country after he’s gone.
U.S. officials said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to use the meeting to evaluate the governing capacity of Libyan rebel leaders – a key factor that will determine whether the U.S. comes to recognize the rebel leaders as the official representatives and government of Libya.
“You can think about this meeting as, how we are going to collectively prepare the TNC to govern,” said a senior U.S. state department official, referring to the rebel’s Transitional National Council. The official was authorized to speak on condition that his name not be used.
U.S. officials have carefully stopped short of calling the TNC the official governing authority of the Libyan country – an important step that could open up sorely needed frozen financial assets in the U.S. to rebels forces.
The main obstacles to that recognition, said U.S. state department officials, is proving that the rebel council will be able to form an inclusive and democratic government once Gaddafi falls.
Another key issue that foreign ministers will wrestle with on Friday is how to and persuade Gaddafi to step down from power.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe and others said that Gaddafi has sent emissaries in recent days saying he was ready to go. But U.S. officials believe Gaddafi’s camp has been putting out contradictory signals, in addition to those emissaries. They are not convinced he is prepared to give up his power yet.
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