No clashes reported in Tripoli

-supporters of Gaddafi have barricaded the capital to prevent protesters from entering from other cities

-protesters in eastern cities have said they will head to Tripoli

-UNSC will debate after 11 am eastern imposing sanctions on Libya, including an arms embargo

-the US signed an order freezing any US assets of Gaddafi and his family and regime members

-the Social People's Leaderships in Al-Zawiyah [city east of Tripoli] have said that affairs in Al-Zawiyah are running as normal after shops opened their doors

-there’s possible jamming going on against Libyan media: Libyan Al-Jamahiriyah News Agency, JANA, was not observed to update on 26 February. State-owned Libyan TV reported that Libyan satellite channel Al-Libiyah had been subjected to severe interference since Friday evening;

-the General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation criticized outside reporting of events in Libya, saying it’s a “twisted campaign”

The Libyan capital Tripoli was calm Saturday morning after clashes erupted the night before between supporters and opponents of leader Moamer Gaddafi, according to eyewitnesses.

(Updates with international reaction starting in 10th paragraph. See EXTRA for more news on the regional turmoil.)

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations will debate imposing sanctions on Libya today after Muammar Qaddafi told loyalists he’s prepared to arm them to fight opposition forces holding the eastern part of the country.

“When needed, all the weapons stores will be opened,” Qaddafi told a crowd in Tripoli’s Green Square. In New York, Libya’s ambassador to the UN, Mohammed Shalgham, pleaded for the Security Council to act and “save Libya.”

With French President Nicolas Sarkozy saying it’s time for Qaddafi to go, the U.S. and its allies are working out how to oust an Arab leader eight years after the invasion of Iraq sparked a wave of anti-Western sentiment. Britain and France yesterday circulated a draft resolution that would impose an arms embargo on Libya and would refer reported violence to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The Security Council has scheduled a meeting for 11 a.m. in New York for further talks on the text.

“There isn’t a clear end-game here,” Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar, said in a telephone interview. “There isn’t a rebel army marching on Tripoli attempting to take it over from Qaddafi.”

Qaddafi is digging himself into the Libyan capital after army units defected in the east of the country and Al Arabiya television reported yesterday that his forces shot at worshippers leaving Friday prayers. Libya’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Ibrahim Dabbashi, told reporters that security forces killed hundreds of protestors yesterday and “thousands” more fatalities were expected.

Oil Prices

The prospect of civil war in North Africa’s biggest oil producer has pushed crude prices to a 2 1/2-year high, and led to calls for action to stop the worst violence seen in the two months of unrest across the Middle East and North Africa.

Hundreds of Egyptian migrants crossed the border into Tunisia yesterday, joining thousands of others who had been stranded there for three days, Human Rights Watch said in an e- mailed statement today.

“West of Tripoli in Zawiyah city, government security forces firing on demonstrators are causing bloodshed and chaos,” the statement cited Sarah Leah Whitson, regional director for the rights group, as saying. “Pro-Gaddafi thugs have terrorized Egyptian migrant workers, causing hundreds to flee to Tunisia.”

Regional Unrest

Across the Arab world yesterday, protesters streamed into squares after Friday prayers to demand more rights, two weeks after the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Demonstrations took place in Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Tunisia, the country that last month sparked the unrest sweeping the region when President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted.

President Barack Obama signed an order freezing any U.S. assets of Muammar Qaddafi, his family and members of his regime in Libya, as the first of what the administration says will be a series of sanctions.

The order says that Qaddafi “and close associates have taken extreme measures against the people of Libya, including by using weapons of war, mercenaries, and wanton violence against unarmed civilians.”

Ahead of the UN meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron spoke by phone and agreed that the Security Council must quickly pass “tight sanctions” against the Libyan regime.

“The inhuman policy of Colonel Qaddafi must come to an end,” German government spokesman Christoph Steegmans said in an e-mailed statement today detailing the conversation.

“France’s position is clear, Mr. Qaddafi must go,” Sarkozy said at a news conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gul in Ankara yesterday. Sarkozy, the first leader of a major power to call openly for Qaddafi’s resignation, said intervention wasn’t a good option.

--With assistance from Mariam Fam and Ola Galal in Cairo, Indira Lakshmanan in Washington, Benjamin Harvey in Istanbul and Patrick Donahue in Berlin. Editors: Digby Lidstone, Leon Mangasarian.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alaa Shahine in Dubai at asalha@bloomberg.net; Zainab Fattah in Dubai at zfattah@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net.

Group sheltering in Al-Zawiyah mosque - Libyan TV
"Sources from Social People's Leaderships in Al-Zawiyah [city east of Tripoli] have said that affairs in Al-Zawiyah are running as normal after shops opened their doors. There remains only a small group sheltering in the mosque and the same sources said that efforts are continuing to convince this group to return from the direction in which they are heading", said Libyan state TV in an "urgent" screen caption at 1350 gmt on 26 February.

Source: Libyan TV, Tripoli, in Arabic 1350 gmt 26 Feb 11

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Libyan Al-Jamahiriyah News Agency, JANA, was not observed to update on 26 February. The agency last updated at 1826 gmt on 25 February.

The news agency has not been particularly active in reporting anti-Qadhafi protests sweeping Libya.

This morning, state-owned Libyan TV reported that Libyan satellite channel Al-Libiyah had been subjected to severe interference since Friday evening, 25 February, affecting all programmes offered by this channel.

BBC Mon Alert ME1 MEPol MD1 Media sm

Text of report by state-owned Libyan TV on 26 February

The General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation has issued the following statement: The General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation has noticed that media outlets were still conveying false information on what is happening in the Great Jamahiriyah, as part of a campaign that contributed to exaggerating events so as to influence the stances of world states and institution, in turn affecting the morale of Libyan people and destabilizing them. To refute that, Libya had opened its doors to Arab and foreign reporters.

The General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation, as it renews its astonishment over the continuation of this twisted campaign and over the refusal by media outlets to present the truth about what is happening in Libya, it would like to emphasize the following:

First, what is happening in the Great Jamahiriyah is totally different to what the world is learning through media outlets. The truth is that the battle is among sleeper cells affiliated to Al-Qa'idah organization and its leader Bin-Ladin, who planted these cells long time ago. As they [sleeper cells] received orders they attacked the camps of the armed forces and public security centres to acquire weapons so as to spread chaos and terrorize the public;

Second, recent rallies in Libya are not at all peaceful. With the exception of places controlled by the terrorists, the peaceful rallies that took place were supportive rallies and rallies that condemn terrorism, waged by Al-Qa'idah elements, which caused the death of members of the security and army, as well as terrorists attacking security and armed forces centres;

Third, The General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation, as it presents these facts to international public opinion, urges the various media outlets to relay what is happening in Libya without any distortion or falsification. The committee seizes this opportunity to express its deepest gratitude to the countries that offered humanitarian aid to Libya, such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The committee would like to stress that the Libyan authorities would take all necessary measures to deliver aid to those who need it.

Source: Libyan TV, Tripoli, in Arabic 0851 gmt 26 Feb 11

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Text of report by state-owned Libyan TV on 26 February

[Presenter] The Libyan satellite channel Al-Libiya has been subjected to severe interference since Friday evening [25 February], which has affected all the programmes this channel offers.

The broadcasting of Al-Libiya was intermittent or cut off altogether yesterday evening [25 February], which affected various programmes dedicated to showing the facts about the current events in Libya in response to the feverish campaign waged by biased foreign circles, which are repeated by mendacious world [TV] channels as part of the psychological war to destabilize the security and stability of the Libyan people and strike at national unity.