Turkey's prime minister heads to Libya on Friday, a day after the French and British leaders won a hero's welcome there for helping to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi and in the midst of a fierce battle over Gaddafi's home town. Tayyip Erdogan, on a North African tour to assert Ankara's regional influence, will be hoping to reap political and economic dividends from Libya's new rulers for his country's help in their struggle to end Gaddafi's 42-year grip on power. After nearly seven months of fighting, anti-Gaddafi forces backed by NATO air power control most of Libya, including oil-producing centres and the capital Tripoli, which they seized last month.
France and Britain spearheaded the air campaign that ousted Gaddafi, but Turkey -- which had contracts worth $15 billion in Libya -- backed it reluctantly and was slow to recognise those now leading the oil-rich north African state. A Turkish ship did play a key role in evacuating civilians from the coastal town of Misrata while it was besieged by Gaddafi forces, and Ankara has recently been vocal in supporting the NTC and provided it with $300 million in cash, loans and other aid. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron were told their support may be repaid in business contracts with the oil-rich North African state.
Turkish companies with business in Libya are hoping the Council will honour pending payments once assets are unfrozen, and Energy Minister Taner Yildiz has said he wants state-owned oil and gas exploration company TPAO to resume oil exploration and production work in Libya if security is established. That depends to a large extent on the fate of Gaddafi who, wanted by the International Criminal Court, is rumoured to be hiding in one of the loyalist strongholds.
In Benghazi, seat of the uprising which early intervention by French and British jets helped to save from Gaddafi's army in March, Sarkozy and Cameron were treated to a rowdy welcome on Thursday, shouting over a cheering crowd.
"It's great to be here in free Benghazi and in free Libya," said Cameron as he strained to be heard above the chants in scenes from the former rebel stronghold televised live across the globe.
The French president, struggling for re-election next year, beamed at grateful chants of "One, two, three; Merci Sarkozy!" while the two leaders, flanking NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil, held his arms aloft like a victorious boxer.
"France, Great Britain, Europe, will always stand by the side of the Libyan people," said Sarkozy, whom many Libyans credit with making a decisive gamble, pulling in a hesitant United States and securing U.N. backing for NATO air strikes to halt Gaddafi's tanks as they closed in to crush Benghazi.
Although Sarkozy denied talk among Arabs of "under the table deals for Libya's riches," Jalil said key allies could expect preferential treatment in return for their help in ending Gaddafi's rule. Other states which did business with Gaddafi, notably China and Russia, have been concerned that their lukewarm attitude to the NTC may cost them economically. While Jalil stressed a desire to allocate contracts on the best terms for Libya, and to honour existing contracts, he said some could be reviewed.
Adapted and Edited from original Reuters report here.
That's the trouble with new statesmen, they happened let the cat out of the bag a bit in the end there didn't they?! Ask most people at work today about the Libyan conflict and you'll hear murmurings about they can't understand why 'our boys' are risking their lives in another foreign country for no reason, etc. However a cursory glance at the above reports and similar makes it patently clear if you have eyes to see. Britain, France, the US and Turkey amongst others are there purely to gain access to markets they were shut out of by Gaddafi notably the oil-producing ones.
Wars don't happen on a whim and scratch a little deeper and you often find their main aim is securing new areas to exploit or to wrest control of existing exploiting areas from another power. Wars are capitalisms problems, not the working classes. Despite regime change and the possible benefits to the average person in Libya, most will still be struggling for the basics of life in the years to come as they have merely changed local paymasters for international ones. For the Libyan workers, a hollow victory it seems.....
SussexSocialist
SussexSocialist display complete INGORNACE about Libya and exhibits an Orientalist and racist take on Qaddafi and the Libyan Socialism. In addition he fronts for Zionist with the worn out "War for Oil(tm)" canard. In order for Sussex to tout "War for Oil(tm)" he ignores Oded Yinon, PNAC, and JINSA. Libya was target for destruction because it stood against Zionism and also provided a safe haven for Palestinians and was pro-Africa.
ReplyDeleteThese wars were not about Capitalism as they are AGAINST oil not for it. Zionist goals are supremacist and racist and Libya was targeted for total destruction.
The WSM originally labeled these Zionist quislings as "rebel" and representing "workers" and to this date never RETRACTED that obviously propagandistic mislabeling.
Deadbeat, i think we would challenge the assertion that you make that what existed in Libya under Qadaffi was socialism. Nor do we retract our original claim that when the protests arose it was a demand for more democracy by the Libyan working class.
ReplyDeleteOf course, many Libyans supported Qadaffi, many were employed by the state and were therefore dependant upon its patronage. The protests turned into a civil war which resulted in the military intervention of NATO under the cloak of the spurious "humanitarian" resolution.
You claim it was for the advantage of the zionists, we maintain it was mainly for more control of Libya's resources (but no doubt military and diplomatic strategic reasons also became involved)
How do you explain Iran, not a particularly pro-Zionist regime, congratulating those who defeated Quadaffi.
"Victory of Muslim nation of Libya which came to reality completely with the death of criminal dictator showed that popular demand cannot be suppressed" the Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said.
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index.php/component/content/article/3815
Iran also believes that there are moves afoot by vested interests to exploit Libya's wealth. "The incident in Libya ... I know who is going to gain from the Libyan revolution. I have information that certain countries are going to get the oil from Libya, and this includes the oil drilling work there. I also know these are the same people and countries that are going to get some development projects in Libya after the revolution," Ahmadinejad said.
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=623387
... Or is he also a puppet of Zionism when he ascribes oil as a reason for the military interventions?
Regardless of the motive, however, we stated on this blog that "we denounce the hypocrisy and cynicism of the ruling classes of the Western powers in invoking humanitarianism to once again resort to killing and destruction in pursuit of their sordid “national” interests."
"The Socialist Party points out firmly that a free society can never be fashioned by coercion. Conversely, armed might can never be the agent of liberation in any real sense of the word."
"If you want to have done with barbarous dictators like Ghadaffi, it's a waste of time to go to war: others will spring up everywhere."