The Gaddafi regime is negotiating an end to the crisis with France not with the rebels, the son of Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi said in an interview published Monday.
Seif Al-Islam also cited intelligence reports indicating that France is sending airborne troops to western Libya to fight alongside the rebels and attack Tripoli.
"We are in fact holding real negotiations with France and not with the rebels," he said during the interview with the Algerian daily El Khabar.
According to him, Tripoli had received a "clear message" from Paris through a special envoy who met with the French president. Seif Al-Islam said French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the Libyan emissary: "We created the (rebel) National Transitional Council and without France's backing, money and weapons, it would not exist." Sarkozy made it clear that "he, not the rebels, was Tripoli's interlocutor," according to Seif Al-Islam. "The French officially informed us that they wanted to set up a transitional government in Libya. Sarkozy told a Libyan envoy: I have a list and those on it are the men of France," he said.
On French support to the rebels, Gaddafi's son said: "According to intelligence reports, France is parachuting troops in western Libya to fight alongside the rebels and attack Tripoli."
He also said "French special forces deployed in western Libya had organized air weapons drops for the rebels."
