While EU leaders chat, Gaddafi moves his chess pieces
Published:
March 14, 2011 at 9:33am
Hope is dying fast in Libya.
The Azerbaijani press reports today that as the European Union and United States tighten the noose around his neck, Muammar Gaddafi has opened negotiations with Russia, China and India.
He has summoned the ambassadors of those countries and held talks with them, saying that Russian, Indian and Chinese oil companies are now welcome to invest in Libya’s oil industry, which has suffered from the sudden departure of expatriat personnel and international sanctions.
Russia and China are against the expansion of UN sanctions and have said that they will use their right of veto against a UN-mandated no-fly zone.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/13/AR2011031303262.html
Veru kas li kulhadd jikkundanna dak li qed jigri fil Libya pero fl-stess hin kulhadd jahseb ghar-rasu! Wasal iz-zmien li l-Ewropa tinqaghad tassew u mhux bil-kliem biss. Il-holma tieghi hija li l-Ewropa issir forza kbira anke aktar mil-America imma jidher li din se tibqa holma.
I think it is very difficult for Europe to unite in matters of defence. The Europeans have been at each other’s throats for centuries and this legacy won’t be shed off easily. Even the European Union of today started more than 50 years ago (with the European Coal and Steel Community) and it took all these years to arrive where it is today. Defence and military matters will be the hardest bone of contention for one European voice.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110314/local/ir-realta-editor-writer-acquitted
Who cares?
We just have to wait and see what the Security Council vote will bring. Not that the democratic world needed a vote and the UN, but there you go. It takes leaders of substance to make countries of substance, but you do not have them all the time. A look at the boundaries (frontiers) of the individual European countries over these last 150 years and how they have kept changing teaches a great deal about their leaders and leadership in general.
On another note
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110314/local/ir-realta-editor-writer-acquitted
At last, freedom of expression prevails in the law courts.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12731079
Rebels retake Brega
Medvedev bans Gaddafi from Russia:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/14/libya-russia-gaddafi-idUSLDE72D0T020110314
I hate to say ‘let’s wait and see’, because it is the long term that counts (in international politics). But, at face value, this is really THE news.
“It’s hard not to conclude that this is an impossibly difficult time for us and for the rest of the world. Is the U.S. responding appropriately you might ask? Is the president “fiddling” while the world seems to explode with danger and disaster, particularly in the Mideast? What would we want the president to do and say that would make us feel less unsettled and helpless? There are two distinct views on the administration’s approach. One view is that Obama is being prudent and wise not to rush to judgment in Libya, but instead putting pressure on Libya via the international community and keeping “all options on the table”. That whatever he is doing in private will only be successful if it is kept private. The other view is that the administration is too cautious and timid, leaving the Libyans and Yemenis to fight and die while the U.S. tries to rustle up international support for the protestors in these countries. The truth is that we don’t know, can’t know, and shouldn’t know what is being done behind the scenes, because much of that effort must be kept secret to be effective…”
More here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-bergthold/the-world-is-on-fire—-a_b_835158.html
http://lafinanceoffshore.blogspot.com/2011/02/avoirs-libyens-bloques-la-suisse-aidee.html
ANYONE NOTICED SOMETHING INTERESTING IN THIS LIST?
HANA GHEDDAFI, THE ADOPTED DAUGHTER OF MWAMMAR WAS SUPPOSEDLY DEAD AFTER THE REGAN BOMBING.AT THE TIME , MWAMMAR MADE A BIG SHOW OF IT ON THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA.
On Xarabank they had interviewed this former bodyguard of gaddafi who said that it was not true that the adopted daughter had died in the bombing.
I am surprised this has not yet been picked up by the international media.
Al Jazeera’s Tony Birtley reports from Benghazi, “The rebels here have two plans, Plan A is about what will happen if Gaddafi goes, how they can run their country according to their own rules and Plan B is run.”
I think they should focus on Plan B!
Sod that. Plan B is basic insurgency. All we have to do is keep them supplied with weapons. Sooner or later the population will rally to their side. And they’ll get Gaddafi.
Doing a quick trawl through the on-line news media, it’s gameover in Libya.
Interesting article from Time magazine about how history can repeat itself. Europe in 1848 and the Middle East in 2011:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/pdf/20110321_1848vs2011.pdf
at last! a bit of perspective
Inhossni inkwetat hafna hafna. Ghadni kif rajt fuq it-tv hafna zghazagh u tfal f’Benghazi s’issa ferhanin. Jahasra fi ftit jiem ohra (forsi sieghat) hemmhekk se jkun kamp ta koncentrament mimli kadavri. Dak il-baghal Gaddafi kollha se joqtolhom
L-Ewropa mhi se taghmel XEJN … XEJN. Lanqas Barack Hussein Obama. Mhux imbilli baghat lil Hilary Clinton. Daphne, mhux in-nisa kollha ghandhom bajd tal-azzar bhal ma kellha Thatcher.
Russia and China, two countries which don’t know the meaning of democracy.
Come come. Russia discovered democracy in 1991, and it’s been making huge efforts.
Russia and China are worlds apart.
Russian President bans Gaddafi and his family from entering Russia.
Whoever takes Al Jazeera seriously could end up as bonkers as their newsroom. Yesterday, at around 5pm they had this breaking news: ‘Nato air strikes in Libya’, only to disappear after a while. The only real strike there was, in the end, was the killing of one of their journalists in Libya itself.
You seem not to have taken my analysis on the BRIC countries seriously. It was pretty obvious that Russia and particularly China were interested in widening and deepening their relations with the African continent.
Now we shall have to contend with these two non-Western powers a stone’s throw away from us.
Time to impose sanctions on China, Russia and India?
And where would you buy/sell your iphones, ciccio?