(Updates with markets in third paragraph. See EXTRA for more news on the regional turmoil.)
Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi must go “as soon as possible,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said after the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to freeze his assets.
“We want him to leave, we want him to end his regime,” and to call off the mercenaries who are targeting Libyan citizens, Clinton told reporters traveling with her to Geneva to discuss the turmoil with her counterparts.
The Security Council late yesterday voted 15-0 to freeze the foreign assets of Qaddafi and four aides and to bar them from traveling, in the broadest international effort to halt the violence in Libya that has left more than 1,000 people dead. Middle East shares fell, sending Saudi Arabia’s index to a nine- month low, on concern the deadly clashes of the past week that caused oil prices to surge to a more than two-year high will stall a global recovery.
The unrest that has swept the Middle East in the past month, ousting President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak as Egyptian president, today spread to Oman, where protesters clashed with security forces in the province of Sohar. In Tunisia, the country’s interim Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi resigned today after three people were killed in street protests.
Unrest in Libya and Persian Gulf countries including Bahrain has prompted concern that supplies of oil from the world’s main region of crude production may be disrupted.
Oil Markets
Crude oil for April delivery climbed 60 cents, or 0.6 percent, to settle at $97.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Feb. 25, the most recent day of trading. U.S. oil rose to $103.41 on Feb. 24, the highest intraday price since Sept. 29, 2008.
Clinton also praised the actions of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer, and Bahrain’s King Hamad Bin Isa al Khalifa, saying they are engaged in “meaningful outreach” to their citizens.
The Bahraini king has reduced government housing loans by 25 percent. The Saudi king has taken measures designed to improve employment in the kingdom and, along with other OPEC nations, pledged to replace any lost Libyan oil.
Libya and Saudi Arabia are among the 12 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps about 40 percent of the world’s oil.
Arms Embargo
The UN resolution also imposes an arms embargo on Libya and calls for an immediate end to violence that it says “may amount to crimes against humanity.” The measure refers the allegations to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for investigation and possible prosecution. The vote followed a plea by Libyan Ambassador Mohammed Shalgham on Feb. 25 for the UN to “save” his nation.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says more than 1,000 people have died in the unrest, which has left protesters in control of much of the east of the country.
Hundreds of armed anti-government forces backed by rebel troops who control Zawiya, the city closest to the capital, prepared late today to repel an expected offensive by forces loyal to Qaddafi, the Associated Press reported.
On the roads between the Egyptian border and the eastern town of Benghazi, anti-Qaddafi protesters carrying assault rifles and former soldiers in uniform set up tents and searched passing cars for weapons, some of them welcoming passersby with juice and sweets. In Benghazi and other eastern towns, public buildings including police stations flew the red, black and green flag of Libyan independence that pre-dates Qaddafi’s rule.
Benghazi Opposition
Opposition groups nominated former Justice Minister Moustafa Abdel Jalil as head of an interim government, Fathi Baja, a member of the city council in Benghazi, said today. It wasn’t immediately clear what form the provisional government might take or what support it has.
Egyptian volunteer doctors said most of the violence in Benghazi took place around the main army headquarters, and began when mercenaries opened fire on protesters.
Several witnesses in Tripoli, the capital, said forces loyal to the Libyan leader had shot people from ambulances, used antiaircraft guns against crowds, and removed dead bodies from hospitals to try to obscure the death toll, the New York Times reported.
One of Qaddafi’s sons, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, said “nobody is leaving this country” on ABC’s “This Week” program. “We live here. We die here.”
‘Reality Gap’
Saif Qaddafi said the regime’s military hasn’t attacked civilians and that most of Libya is calm. There is “a big gap between reality and the media reports,” he said on ABC. “The whole south is calm. The west is calm. The middle is calm. Even part of the east.”
Three Tunisian youths were killed in clashes between protesters and security forces yesterday, the official Tunis Afrique Presse news agency said, citing the Interior Ministry.
In Oman, several people were wounded today when Oman’s security forces fought rioters in Sohar, where protesters damaged public and private property, the official Oman News Agency reported today.
--With assistance from Mariam Fam in Cairo, Zahra Hankir and Alaa Shahine in Dubai, David Lerman, Ann Hughey and Jeff Bliss in Washington, and Thomas Penny in London. Editors: Digby Lidstone, Louis Meixler.
To contact the reporters on this story: Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger@bloomberg.net; Mariam Fam in Cairo at mfam1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net.
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