Gaddafi’s son abducted in #Lebanon

He had been abducted by an armed group: Hannibal al-Qaddafi, the son of the former Libyan ruler Muammar al-Gaddafi, has apparently been kidnapped in the Lebanon.

He read out a note taken after the conversations, in which he was described as having given a “strong message” that “the violence had to stop and he [Gaddafi] must leave the country”.

In this image taken from TV former British Prime Minister Tony Blair gestures while appearing in front of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee at the House of Commons in London Friday Dec. 11, 2015 where he is giving evidence on Britain’s foreign policy towards Libya.

Emails from the account of former USA secretary of state Hillary Clinton, released earlier this year under American freedom of information laws, suggested that the ex-Labour leader privately urged Gaddafi to stand aside as rebellion erupted against his regime in 2011.

“Where you are intervening and this Islamist extremism is going to be an element, you are going to have to have a major security component to anything you do”, Mr Blair said.

Tony Blair has defended his so-called “deal in the desert” with Muammar Gaddafi in 2004, saying his decision to bring the Libyan dictator in from the cold may have prevented chemical weapons falling into the hands of Islamic State.

Lebanese security sources told the AFP news agency that Hannibal Gadhafi had been “kidnapped Friday by an armed group” and said an investigation is under way.

The new United Nations envoy for Libya announced today that the parties to the country’s political dialogue process have agreed to set 16 December as the target date to sign the UN-facilitated agreement on forming a national unity government, aiming to bring an end to the crisis that has left almost 2.4 million Libyans in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

Mr Ganesh said: “I was very disappointed to hear that”.

He said: “We raised the case of Yvonne Fletcher every time”. “You often find people saying ‘wouldn’t it just be better if we dealt with the dictators?” he said.

Mr Blair told the committee he wanted to use his “relationship” with Gaddafi to “get him to do something”.

He said he had “two or three” calls with Gaddafi over a 24 hour period, all of which were to the same effect.

“I am with people who have a cause and they are loyal to their cause”.

But he declined to criticise David Cameron or the then French president Nicolas Sarkozy for launching military action against the Qaddafi regime.

The diplomat said a meeting in Rome on Sunday aimed to make that clear to all sides and warn them of possible consequences if they continue to stall political progress. “I know how hard these decisions are”.