US should recognize transitional Libyan govt: senators

Two senior US lawmakers urged the United States on Sunday to recognize a transitional government in Libya and provide it with weapons and humanitarian assistance to oust strongman Moamer Kadhafi.
As a wave of protests roiled the Middle East and North Africa, Libyan protest leaders established a transitional "national council" in cities seized from Kadhafi by anti-regime forces, a spokesman said, noting that consultations were underway to discuss the composition and duties of the new body.
"We ought to recognize the provisional government as the legitimate government of Libya and we ought to give that government certainly humanitarian assistance and military arms, not to go in on the ground ourselves but to give them the wherewithal to fight on behalf of the people of Libya against a cruel dictator," Lieberman told CNN from Cairo. On Saturday, former justice Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who has quit Kadhafi's regime, told Al-Jazeera television that a transitional government would be formed to lead the country before an election.
McCain urged US President Barack Obama, his former rival in the 2008 presidential campaign, to "get tough" and make it clear that Libyan officials involved in attacks on their own people should face prosecution for war crimes. Though he stopped short of advocating a military intervention in the oil-rich North African country, he said that "there could be" one.