Paul Shemm: AP - Libya Bars Italy From Oil Sector

Libya on Thursday barred Italy, one of the country's largest investors, from its oil sector because of Rome's role in the NATO airstrikes on the country, a move that raised serious questions about investments by Italian oil giant ENI SpA in the OPEC member state. In Moscow, meanwhile, a Russian newspaper quoted the Kremlin's special envoy to Libya as saying that Moammar Gadhafi has threatened to blow up Tripoli, if the Libyan capital falls into rebel hands. Mikhail Margelov told the Izvestia newspaper that Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi al Mahmoudi recently told him, "If rebels seize the city, we will deluge it with missiles and blow it up." "I presume that the Gadhafi regime has a suicidal plan of this kind," Margelov told the newspaper. The Canadian general commanding NATO's mission in Libya said Gadhafi is telling his forces to destroy facilities, including fuel refineries, as they retreat. But the troops are not necessarily carrying out the order, Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard cautioned Thursday. "Let's be clear, just because Gadhafi has given a direction, it does not mean that "direction" is being undertaken by his own troops," he told reporters in a conference call from Naples, Italy. The civil war in Libya appears to have hit a stalemate, despite a protracted NATO bombing campaign against Gadhafi loyal forces under a UN mandate on protecting civilians. On Wednesday, NATO reported carrying out 50 strikes, including against missile launchers near Tripoli. Rebels control eastern Libya and pockets in the west, while Gadhafi is holding on to Tripoli and large stretches of Western Libya.