Libya govt spox Moussa Ibrahim rejects ceasefire offer

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• published: 30 Jul 2015
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1. Wide of news conference with Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim 2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Moussa Ibrahim, Libyan Government Spokesman: "The rebels never offered any peace.....we are the ones who offered peace weeks ago, and we said we are going to talk, and let's sit down and everything. The rebels are not offering peace. If you are making impossible demands, it's a trick, it's a trick. So, okay, I could come to the rebels and say: 'rebels, I offer you peace, get out of Benghazi on a ship, this is my condition.' You can't do that. These are our cities, these are the cities of the Libyan government. You hate this government? You can hate it. Many people hate their governments. That's not the question. If you want peace, you keep things as they are, you sit down and you negotiate. But to make impossible demands is a trick. So what they are doing is not a genuine wish for peace." 3. Reverse shot of journalists at news conference STORYLINE: Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said on Friday that a ceasefire offer made by the rebels was a "trick". The rebels said from Benghazi, their de facto capital, that they will agree to a cease-fire if Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi pulls his military forces out of cities and allows peaceful protests against his regime. The head of the opposition's interim government Mustafa Abdul-Jalil made the announcement on Friday, after talks with United Nations envoy Abdelilah Al-Khatib. Al-Khatib also met Libyan government officials in Tripoli on Thursday before holding talks with rebels in hopes of reaching a political solution. The UN resolution that authorised international airstrikes against Libya called for Gadhafi and the rebels to end hostilities. Abdul-Jalil said the rebels' condition for a cease-fire is "that the Gadhafi brigades and forces withdraw from inside and outside Libyan cities to give freedom to the Libyan people to choose and the world will see that they will choose freedom." But Moussa, speaking to a news conference in Tripoli, said that the rebels were making "impossible demands". "So, okay, I could come to the rebels and say: 'rebels, I offer peace, get out of Benghazi on a ship, this is my condition.' You can't do that," he said. The government spokesman said that if the rebels wanted peace, they would have accepted the government's earlier offer, before the no-fly zone resolution. "If you want peace, you keep things as they are, you sit down and you negotiate. But to make impossible demands is a trick. So what they are doing is not a genuine wish for peace," said Moussa. Forces loyal to Libya's leader of nearly 42 years spent much of this week pushing the rebels back about 100 miles (160 kilometres) along the coast, and the opposition was trying to regroup. It was unclear if the rebels had managed to recapture the town of Brega, on Friday. There were signs that the rebels were adopting more disciplined military tactics, spreading out across the desert in an attempt to flank Gadhafi's forces. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/147031e5e23195b19a47e4ec9362d701 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork