Turkey and Greece, both NATO members, have said they want to listen to proposals from both sides on a way to end the violence. Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas said after meeting with Obeidi that “there is mobility, and there is a chance, albeit small, for a politico-diplomatic solution.”  But Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the “proposals . . . to end the crisis” presented by Obeidi in Greece were “not credible.” Among the cease-fire proposals Obeidi is believed to have transmitted was one calling for Gaddafi to turn control of the western portion of the country over to his sons, an option that Frattini also dismissed.  “Any solution for the future of Libya has a precondition: that Gaddafi’s regime leaves . . . that Gaddafi himself and the family leave the country,” Frattini told reporters after meeting in Rome on Monday with Ali al-Essawi, the rebel council’s foreign policy representative.  Essawi said that any action aimed at dividing Libya “is unacceptable, as is any policy initiative that does not lead to the end of the Gaddafi regime,” according to a statement by the Italian Foreign Ministry.  Italy’s recognition follows that of France and Qatar. The Obama administration has resisted recognizing the council, saying it does not know enough about the opposition.  U.S. officials have become increasingly resigned to the possibility of a military standoff on the ground, with opposition forces, under the protection of coalition airstrikes and a no-fly zone, holding the eastern part of the country while Gaddafi’s forces remain in control of the west.  Frattini also said that Italy will sent aircraft to the western city of Misurata, where rebel forces have been under seige by Gaddafi loyalists, to evacuate the wounded to a hospital ship. Gaddafi, he said, was also using “illegal immigration as a weapon,” threatening countries in the region with an influx of refugees.  About 260 people, including wounded rebel fighters, were taken out of Misurata over the weekend by a Turkish ferry protected by Turkish jet fighters and naval vessels. The ship stopped Sunday in Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital in the east, to pick up more wounded.  In eastern Libya, there were reports that rebels had retaken most of the oil town of Brega, the current front line in the seesawing battle for control of a stretch of coastal towns strung out between Ajdabiya, about 100 miles south of Benghazi, and Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte 253 miles to the west.
Opposition leaders crossed paths with a Gaddafi representative pushing in Europe for a diplomatic solution that would allow Gaddafi or his sons to remain in power. Acting Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul Ati al-Obeidi arrived in Turkey for talks with that country’s government, just a day after he met with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in Athens.