The oil minister for Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s Libyan government has defected, citing the “daily spilling of blood.” Speaking in Italy, Shokri Ghanem expressed support for the Libyan rebels opposing Gaddafi.

Shokri Ghanem: “With this situation, which is unbearable, one cannot continue working, and therefore I left the country and I decided also to leave my job and to join the choice of the Libyan youth to create a modern constitutional state, respecting human rights and building for a better future for all Libyans.”