father to move to one side, saif al gadhafi to take over. what we re being told is that the father won t go at the point of a gun, that if negotiations start out with the precondition for regime change and him leaving it s not going to happen. we re told if the negotiations start without that precondition then it will easily achieve his departure at the end of it. he needs to go with respect is what we re told. the regime views and believes it is still strong here, and that s why it thinks it can try and have it have the terms the way it views them. but there is one problem here, and that is that gadhafi himself has yet to convince all the tribes here to support saif al islam, his son, and without that tribal support whatever they try to sell to the international community, the op pog, if it doesn t fly if it doesn t fly with his supporters it s not going to fly at all, anderson. and ben, there s also the question of the opposition and whether they would stand for saif gadhafi ta
ben wedeman with opposition forces. in tripoli nic robertson. and at the state department jill dougherty. nick, this is a confusing situation. the envoy sent by gadhafi to negotiate with the west is proposing that gadhafi s son saif take over for his father? reporter: that s it. this is sort of an old idea that s been out there for some time. saif gadhafi has been running this country, we re told, on a day-to-day basis for the last couple of years. this was a plan we were told was always in the works, for the father to move to one side, saif al gadhafi to take over. what we re being told is that the father won t go at the point of a gun, that if negotiations start out with the precondition for regime change and him leaving it s not going to happen. we re told if the negotiations start without that precondition then it will easily achieve his departure at the end of it. he needs to go with respect is what we re told. the regime views and believes it is still strong here, and that s wh
fighting on the ground. opposition fighters, gadhafi forces continue to fight for control of brega. an opposition officer says gadhafi s troops are on the defensive there, surrounded from three directions. with nato air strikes dwindling, one opposition spokesman says the u.n. resolution is not being implemented. he says fighters are wondering where are they? meanwhile, the gadhafi regime is floating a scenario for gadhafi s son, saif, to take over without it looking like his father s be s forced out. joining us live from ajdabiya is ben wedeman with opposition forces in tripoli nic roberts sxorngs at the state department jill doherty. nick, this is a confusing situation. the envoy sent by gadhafi to negotiate with the west is proposing that gadhafi s son saif take over for his father? reporter: that s it. this is sort of an old idea that s been out there for some time. saif gadhafi has been running this country, we re told, on a day-to-day basis for the last couple of years. this wa
on the ground or people on the ground. and nato doesn t have them. the u.s. is the only one that does. so they called on the u.s. to use them up and through monday. and also gates and mullen are saying that they could be used around standby and they could be used again if necessary. nic, if the gadhafi regime, i mean, is doing well on the ground, why do they feel that they have to negotiate? i mean, if they re winning against this disorganized opposition force, is it just pressure of the air strikes? reporter: well, perhaps it is the reality that they can t now take the other half of the country or the other sort of third of the country in the east. and that perhaps is what s pushing them toward this. perhaps they re rattled by moussa koussa, the foreign minister defecting last week. perhaps they really are worried that more people will go. perhaps they re worried that only gadhafi i mean, this is what we keep hearing here, it s only gadhafi that can hold the tribes together.
translator: everyone that is in the hotel that appears to be waiters or members of the staff, they are secret police. and i knew this. i know they were all members of the secret service. and internal security forces. and the revolutionary guard. and i know all of this. and i know i could even die. but there s something we are trying to tell the world. gadhafi says that all the people here support him and that he is originally from the east and his roots are in the east, meaning there is no opposition to him at all. the people here live in hell, in detention, in a 24-hour state of terror. the same terror that happened to me in the hotel so that i would not speak. we ll have more of my interview with her in just a moment. we also want to be very transparent about this interview. a number of you have asked on twitter how we can be sure this is eman al obeidy.