利比亚外长叛逃英国

Nic, let's start with you and let's talk a little bit about Moussa Koussa.What kind of impact will that have in Lybia and on Gaddafi?

Well,it's already having a great big impact here, and what's the most interesting thing about this is just the day before this was announced that Moussa Koussa defected to London,the deputy foreign minister here insisted, he absolutely insisted Moussa Koussa was coming back.The day we arrived here just over a month ago,we were demanded to go to an interview with Mussa Kussa. He gave us a very robust defence of the regime here.Yet a couple of weeks later,at a  press conference he was reading a statement with his head down like this, and he really didn't seem to have his heart in it. And that was the first time there was an indication that he may not be as committed to the regime as it appeared on the surface, but he gave the impression to everyone here that he would be just going to Tunisia, just across the border for something else and everyone believed he was coming back until this moment.

Government officials have not yet been out of fully confirmed as for themselves, and have not yet issued a statement, which just shows you how much they are reeling and in his absence they don't know what to do.The impact is gonna go beyond the heads of media department to others who know that they've been part of  the intelligence and security establishment as he was here for many many years, one of the most wanted men on the Lybia's, sort of the most wanted terrorist list overseas. A man who has been in intelligence agency here for 15 years, from 94 to 2009. And he's got a lot of skeletons in his closet. He knows a lot about the regime here. So a lot of people would be wondering what information he's handing over about them-should they also be leaving the country? But perhaps,the biggest impact is going to be: this was a close confidant of Muammar Gaddafi, and perhaps somebody,who could have held in back from some of  his excesses. That voice is now gone from here.This leaves Gaddafi more on his own track,and less likely to be influenced by others. But it is likely to be what other senior officials considering doing at this time. This is gonna worry the leadership the most here right now, Zain.

Let's get the other side from Phil Black, Nic, and just see, Phil, how much information are you getting about where exactly Moussa Koussa is. Is he talking? And any details are you getting from foreign office or no?

Details are a few, Zain. But what do we know is, according to the foreign office here,is Moussa Koussa arrived here yesterday.They say he came of his own choice.But there are media reports here in Britain this morning, suggesting that he may have arrived on a British government's plane.The foreign office says that he's  resigning his post as foreign minister because he's no longer willing to represent the Gaddafi regime abroard.And all they simply say it that they are now talking to him about that.So no one is officially using the word "defection" here yet. But if true,as Nic is saying, he obviously represents a significant prize. Both, perhaps, the representation of pression that exists upon the internal members of the Gaddafi regime and western efforts to persuade those members to switch sides, but also just and particularly so for his intelligence value. The inside knowledge he has of the regime will be of significant interest to the British government, to the western coalition in bringing an early end potentially to Gaddafi and his leadership in Libya.