The region
occupied today by Libya was
controlled by the Ottoman Empire from 1551 to
1912. In 1912 the Italians took control of the region, after the
Italian-Ottoman war of 1911-1912. In 1951, the Arab islamist King Idris, with
the help of the British, whom he had helped against the Germans and the
Italians during the Second World War, declared the independent monarchy of Libya
Picture 1
Muammar Qaddafi,
like all other socialist dictators of the Middle East and North Africa, was a Russian
ally, and he was getting his arms from the Soviet Union .
But these dictators were following a very different socialist model than the
one followed by the Russian socialists. Russian socialists were following socialism
and internationalism, because they were facing very different populations in
their colonies of Central Asia and Eastern Europe .
The Russian socialists were Christian Orthodox, and they had to united under
their leadership the Turkic populations of Central Asia ,
the Christian Catholics, the Christian Protestants, but also the Muslims of
Eastern Europe and the Balkans. There were also Slavic and non-Slavic
populations in their colonies.
Therefore
the Russian socialists had to eliminate the ethnic and religious factors, in
order to absorb the population of their colonies. That’s why they banned
religion and they emphasized the working class, demonizing the ethnic factor.
Today, that Russia has lost
her colonies in Central Asia and Europe, Putin is using Slavism and
Christianity aggressively, in order to promote the Russian energy policies in Europe .
On the
other hand, the Arab socialist dictators were facing a very different
situation. They were facing a very homogeneous population, with the Arab and
the Muslim factor being dominant. Therefore the Arab socialist dictators invested
a lot in socialism and Arab nationalism. Gamal Nasser, the Russian ally and
socialist dictator of Egypt ,
used Arab nationalism (Panarabism), together with the Syrian socialists, in
order to unite the Arabs of the Middle East under his leadership, and gain
control of the oil of the Persian Gulf . See
“The Intra-Arab War for Oil 1950-1970”.
Muammar
Qaddafi, the Libyan socialist dictator and Russian ally, used socialism and
Arab nationalism, in order to united Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia, under
an Arab Islamic Republic, which would give the Arabs of North Africa more
bargaining power over their European customers, who were buying their oil and
gas. Even though this kind of unions are very difficult, because there is
always the issue of who will have the power, the Arab Islamic Republic makes
some sense, because Algeria is very rich in natural gas, Libya is very rich in
oil, and Morocco and Tunisia are of strategic importance for transferring the
oil and natural gas of Northern Africa to Europe.
Muammar
Qaddafi managed to reach some understanding with Tunisia
1st
Paragraph
The Arab
Islamic Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية
العربية الإسلامية al-Jumhūrīyah al-‘Arabīyah al-Islāmīyah) was a proposed
unification of Tunisia and Libya in
1974, agreed upon by then Libyan head of
state Muammar Gaddafi and Tunisian
President Habib Bourguiba. Additional countries — Morocco and Algeria — were later included in the
proposal, which was never implemented.
However Qaddafi,
as was the case with Nasser, did not manage to unite North
Africa under his leadership. In the same way that Gamal Nasser
failed to unite the Arabs of the Middle East
under his leadership, Muammar Qaddafi failed to unite the Arabs of North Africa
under his leadership. Please check the following two tables from the Energy Information
Administration, which show the richest countries in natural gas and oil
reserves.
Picture 2
Picture 3
As expected,
Qaddafi was very hostile towards the United States US
and England , but also with France France , and the
other countries of Southern Europe, but he did not really have any other
choice, since Russia France
Two were
the main problems in the relations between France and Qaddafi. The first one
was that France was the main
ally of Israel from 1948
till the 60s, because France
and Israel France
was at war with the Algerian socialists and islamists, because Algeria France and England
Picture 4
Therefore Israel was very useful for France US
which was the main supporter of Israel France
was supplying Israel with
more arms than the US , and Germany was supplying Israel
with more money than the US Israel
and the US
Moreover,
in 1956, when Gamal Nasser wanted to close the Suez Canal, it was France , England
and Israel that invaded the
Sinai Peninsula, and were ready to overturn Nasser .
The famous Suez Crisis. But the United States
opposed the military operation, and the three countries had to leave Egypt England
and France, the two main powers and rivals of Africa ,
were not the main players anymore. The United
States and the Soviet Union
had taken their place.
To make a
long story short, France
continued to supply Israel
with arms, but after France
lost Algeria , and after the United States took control of the Middle East, Israel was not very useful for France France France
2nd Paragraph
Britain, along with
its European partners, imposed its arms embargo on Israel
in 1982 in protest at its invasion of Lebanon
But from
the 60s onwards, with the rise of the pro-Russian socialist dictators in the
Middle East and North Africa, and with the Persian Gulf
playing a growing role in the American foreign policy, the Americans used the
Turks and the Israelis as their main allies against the Soviets.
The other
problem that Qaddafi had with the French, which I think was even more important
than the one with Israel ,
was that the French had great influence over Africa, and Qaddafi believed that
the African countries near Libya Libya ’s
good economic relations with France
The truth
is that Qaddafi had too many enemies and almost no friends. The United States Persian
Gulf wanted him gone, because he was a Russian ally who had always
been against them. That’s why Qatar
and Saudi Arabia Russia and China
abstained from the United Nations meeting that imposed a non-fly zone on Libya , as you can read at the following Guardian
article, titled “Libya
Picture 5
It is true
of course true that the Russians did not want Qaddafi dead, and they were very
angry when that happened. But the Russians turned their back on Qaddafi, and
did not veto the UN resolution because they did not want to go against the
French. In 2011 relations between France
and Russia France
small stakes in the Russian natural gas pipelines, and they had also ordered
two Mistral war ships from France
Moreover
the Russians believed that Qaddafi would finally have to go, and they did not
want to be in bad terms with the new leadership, because that would harm the
Russian and the Chinese energy companies operating in Libya Russia joins demand
for Libyan leader to go”, March 2011, which mentions that Qaddafi was isolated
when Russia
1st Paragraph
Colonel Gaddafi has
beenleft diplomatically deserted after Russia
Moreover there is a big difference
between North Africa and Syria
as far as Russia Syria is Russia ’s playground, which is not the case with North Africa . The countries of Southern Europe import most
of their energy from North Africa, and the countries of North
Africa export most of their energy to these countries. Therefore
even though the socialist dictators of North Africa
were Russian allies, Putin had to take into account the Europeans when dealing
with them, and the socialist dictators had to take into account the Europeans
when dealing with the Russians.
The countries of the Middle East and North Africa are run by socialist or islamist dictators,
and they cannot achieve economic progress. They have to rely on the exports of
their raw materials. They same is true for Russia ,
Venezuela China
is an exception, because due to her rivalry with the Soviet Union, China allowed western companies to enter China China
But let me
return to the subject. As you can read at the following Reuters article, titled
“ENI leads Libya oil race; Russia ,
China may lose out”, August
2011, if Russia and China Qatar
and the French Total, together with the Italian ENI, could be the big winners
in post-Qaddafi Libya
1st and 2nd
Paragraphs
“Italian oil company
Eni led the charge back into Libya on Monday as rebels hailing the end of
Muammar Gaddafi's rule warned Russian and Chinese firms that they may lose out
on lucrative oil contracts for failing to support the rebellion”.
Gaddafi's fall will
reopen the doors to Africa's largest oil reserves and give new players such as
Qatar's national oil company and trading house Vitol the chance to compete with
established European and U.S. oil majors.
"We don't have
a problem with Western countries like the Italians, French and UK
16th, 17th and 18th Paragraphs
About 75 Chinese
companies operated in Libya
Russian companies,
including oil firms Gazprom Neft (SIBN.MM) and Tatneft TATN3.MM, also had projects
worth billions of dollars in Libya
"We have lost Libya completely," Aram Libya
21st Paragraph
Wintershall said
restarting production could be done within several weeks: "This of course
depends on the state of the export infrastructure as well as a stable security
situation in the country," it said. Analysts and industry observers have
said Eni and Total could emerge as the big winners in post-war Libya
I must also
say that in the beginning Italy
was also reluctant to participate in the operations against Qaddafi, because
the Italian ENI was the foreign company that had most of the projects in Libya Italy was worried that France could get most of the energy projects in
post-Qaddafi Libya , if Italy Russia and China ,
if the Russians and the Chinese were to increase their support to the Qaddafi
regime, as you can read at the following Reuters article, titled “Italy 's
Berlusconi exposes NATO rifts over Libya
1st Paragraph
Italian Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Thursday he was against NATO intervention in
Libya
16th Paragraph
Potentially adding
to the pressure on Italy to
review its stance on Libya
But as I said, because ENI was the largest
foreign company in Libya , Italy Italy Libya ”,
July 2014, the Italian ENI and the Spanish Repsol were the largest investors in
Libya
1st and 2nd
Paragraph
Oil giants Eni SpA
and Repsol SA
have evacuated expatriates from Libya
following escalating violence at Tripoli
The move by the
country's two largest foreign oil and gas investors, which comes after
France's Total SA
also pulled out its foreign staff, comes as capital's worst fighting in six
months threatens Libya's fragile oil recovery.
A very good article about the role of
England and France in the Libyan war is Forbes’ “France , U.K. Libya France
and England Libya
The French, according to the Forbes,
even though they were importing oil from Libya ,
since the French Total was very active in Libya ,
had the chance to enhance their military cooperation with the English, in order
to isolate Germany in Europe . The article mentions the military agreement
between France and England in November 2010, which according to the
Forbes was an effort by the English and the French to isolate Germany in Europe .
And the article continues, that the French Total had many projects in Libya
Moreover the Forbes mentions that the
French were supplying Qaddafi with arms, but the Italians had managed to sell
more arms to Libya Libya , because she was aligned with the axis of Germany , Italy
and Russia Italy Italy
2nd, 3rd and 4th
Paragraphs
6th Paragraph
The domestic
political story is fairly straightforward. At the onset of the unrest in the
Middle East, Paris
10th Paragraph
The intervention in Libya therefore is a way to reassert to Europe,
but particularly to Germany ,
that France Europe intends to be taken seriously
as a global power, it will need French military power. France’s close coordination
with the United Kingdom also is an attempt to further develop the military
alliance between London and Paris formalized on Nov. 2, 2010, as a counter to
Germany’s overwhelming economic and political power in the European Union.
12th Paragraph
As for interests in Libya , France Libya Libya ’s plentiful
and largely unexplored energy reserves, French energy companies could stand to
profit from helping rebels take power in Tripoli Paris Libya —
and 2011, Tripoli has purchased approximately
half a billion dollars worth of arms from France ,
more than from any other country in Europe .
However, the Italian government was in negotiation for more than a billion
dollars worth of more deals in 2010, and it seemed that the Rome-Tripoli
relationship was overtaking Paris’ efforts in Libya prior to the
intervention.
16th Paragraph
London has another
significant interest, namely, energy. British energy major BP has no production
in Libya, although it agreed with Tripoli Tripoli Libya
and smooth relations between London and Tripoli
The war in Libya Libya , one recognized
by the international community in Tobruk, and the islamist one in Tripoli , supported by Turkey ,
Qatar Turkey
supplying weapons to rival Tripoli group”, February
2015, Libya ’s Prime
Ministers accused Turkey and
Qatar of supplying with arms
the islamists of Tripoli
1st
and 2nd Paragraphs
Two administrations,
one in the capital and Thinni's in the east, have been battling for power since
the armed group Libya Dawn seized Tripoli in July and reinstated lawmakers from
a previous assembly, four years after Muammar Gaddafi was ousted.
10th
Paragraph
In the CBC
interview, Thinni said Turkish firms would be excluded from contracts in
territory controlled by his government, adding that any outstanding bills would
be paid.
13th
Paragraph
Thinni also accused Qatar
17th
Paragraph
The Brotherhood has
a presence in the rival parliament in Tripoli
and western Libya
As you can read
at the following Financial Times article, titled “Tripoli
authority sacks prime minister”, March 2015, the head of the Islamists in Libya publicly praised ISIS .
5th
Paragraph
Mr Hassi had emerged
as the face of the Islamist-leaning authority in Tripoli
but became a liability once he publicly praised predecessor groups of Isis , including the UN-listed terror group Ansar
al-Sharia. He said these were partners in the effort by his National Salvation
Government to crush armed forces loyal to the government that is
internationally recognised and holed up in the eastern city of Tubruq
This is war.
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