President Barack Obama on February 26 called on Qaddafi to step down, saying that the Libyan government must be held accountable for its brutal crackdown on dissenters. The Obama administration also announced new sanctions against Libya, but that was overshadowed by the sharp demand for Qaddafi’s immediate ouster.“The president stated that when a leader’s only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now,” the White Hsouse said.
The statement summarising Obama’s telephone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel came as Libya’s embattled regime passed out guns to civilian supporters and sent armed patrols around its capital to quash dissent and stave off the rebellion that now controls large parts of the North African nation. Violence continued, a day after pro-Qaddafi militiamen and snipers fired on protesters trying to march in Tripoli and their leader told supporters to defend the nation.
US officials however held back from fully and openly throwing all their support behind the protest movement, insisting that it was for the Libyan people to determine how they want to be led. The refrain echoed the public position maintained by the administration during the Egypt crisis, when the US gradually dropped its support for longtime ally Hosni Mubarak but never explicitly demanded his resignation after nearly three decades in power.
The Obama administration is also freezing all assets in the United States held by the Libyan government, Gaddafi and four of his children and abandoning the US Embassy in Tripoli. The shift in tactics after a week of caution came immediately after the US ensured that Americans were safely on their way out of the blood-soaked North African country by air and by sea. “By any measure, Muammar Qaddafi’s government has violated international norms and common decency and must be held accountable,” President Barack Obama said in a statement.