And then we're surprised because others wonder where Malta's loyalties really lie
Today Muammar, tomorrow Ruby Rubacuori
At least Italy seems to have gone out of its way to prove that it’s burned its bridges.
The Telegraph, 31 August 2009
Libya: Muammar Gaddafi plays the statesman on eve of 40th anniversary of rule
Damien McElroy in Tripoli
The Libyan leader is to stage six days of celebrations, incluuding military parades and a floodlit extravaganza with scantily clad dancers, from Tuesday.
Col Gaddafi was a 27-year old signals officer when he led an army putsch against the ailing King Idris in 1969.
In the lead-up to the events, Col Gaddafi has sought to burnish his reputation on the international stage but with mixed results. Dozens of Western leaders were invited to the no expense spared celebrations in Tripoli but only President George Abela of Malta and his wife Margaret are attending.
Silvio Berlusconi paid a flying visit on Sunday at which the two men laid a flagstone for an ambitious project to build a highway across the top of Africa.
The highway event was staged against a huge photographic backdrop of Mr Berlusconi shaking hands with Col Gaddafi as the two countries signed a treaty of friendship settling aside all past disputes inherited from the days when Libya was an Italian colony last year. An aerobatic team of the Italian airforce screeched overhead leaving green vapour trails – Libya’s national colour – in a salute to Italy’s former North African colony
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Read the full report here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/6118562/Libya-Muammar-Gaddafi-plays-the-statesman-on-eve-of-40th-anniversary-of-rule.html
And you might also want to read this:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6816616.ece
Pathetic.
The resposibility for this shameful error of judgement lies squarely with the Foreign Ministry.
The President’s overseas agenda is determined exclusively by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
This Ministry has shown, very recently, that it is foreign to international affairs.
From kissing his hand to freezing his assets and allowing NATO to use his bases.
Italian politics doesn’t seem to have changed much since the days of Hitler.
What a brown-nosing turncoat he turned out to be – literally and metaphorically.
“An aerobatic team of the Italian airforce screeched overhead leaving green vapour trails – Libya’s national colour – in a salute to Italy’s former North African colony”
WRONG – On that particular day, the Frecce Tricolori trailed their traditional green, white and red coloured smoke and not just the green as Gaddafi demanded.