— Muammar Gaddafi is ready for a truce to stop the fighting in his country, visiting South African president said Monday after meeting the Libyan ruler, but he listed familiar Gaddafi conditions that have scuttled previous cease-fire efforts.
The South African president, Jacob Zuma, said Gaddafi is ready to accept an African Union initiative for a cease-fire that would stop all hostilities, including NATO airstrikes in support of rebel forces. “He is ready to implement the road map,” Zuma said.
Zuma said Gaddafi insists that “all Libyan be given a chance tp talk among themselves” to determine the country’s future. He did not say Gaddafi is ready to step down, which is the central demand of the rebels. He was speaking to reporters from South African and Libyan TV, which broadcast his remarks late Monday.
In April, Zuma led a delegation of the African Union to Tripoli with an African Union proposal for a truce. Gaddafi said he would accept the truce but quickly ignored it and resumed his attacks, while the rebels rejected the cease-fire out of hand because it did not include Gaddafi’s exit from power. Since then many cease-fire efforts have failed for similar reasons.
