MADRID, June 17 (UPI) -- Spain is expelling Libyan diplomats from Madrid, saying Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime "has lost all legitimacy," the Spanish Foreign Ministry said.
The ministry said in a statement Libyan Ambassador to Madrid Ajeli Abdussalam Ali Breni and three other diplomats have 10 days to leave Spain, CNN reported Friday.
"The government of Spain has decided to put an end to the mission of the ambassador accredited in Madrid by the authorities in Tripoli [Libya's capital] because the Gadhafi regime has lost all legitimacy due to its continual repression of the Libyan population," said the statement issued Thursday.
Despite the expulsions, Spain hasn't broken diplomatic ties with Libya, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told CNN. The country still has an embassy in Tripoli although embassy personnel were evacuated from the city as fighting between Gadhafi's forces and rebels seeking his ouster intensified in late March. The spokeswoman said the Spanish Embassy in Tripoli was staffed only by local Libyan personnel.
It was unclear how many other employees would remain at the Libyan Embassy in Madrid after the expulsions, she said.
Spain is part of the NATO-led airstrike operations in Libya.
CNN reported Spain has sent four F-18 fighter jets and a refueling plane to help enforce a no-fly zone and deployed a frigate, a submarine and a surveillance plane to help maintain an arms embargo as part NATO's fulfillment of a U.N. Security Council resolution to protect Libyan citizens from Gadhafi.
