Gaddafi's deputy foreign minister is heading to Malta on a persuasion mission
And we had to learn about it from others. Perhaps he’s thinking of dropping in unannounced? Deutsche Presse-Agentur has wired the story. And Sky News has just reported this:
Libya: Gaddafi Regime ‘Seeks End To Crisis’
Colonel Gaddafi’s envoy has told the Greek prime minister that the Libyan government wants a solution to the crisis and fighting to stop, officials said.
Libya’s deputy foreign minister Abdelati Obeidi travelled to Athens where he held talks with the country’s leader George Papandreou and delivered a message from Col Gaddafi.
But there were no discussions about a possible exit strategy for the dictator.
Mr Obeidi is expected to go to Turkey and Malta to try to persuade them to back his leader.
Mr Obeidi’s trip to Athens came after Mr Papandreou spoke to his Libyan counterpart Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmudi on Saturday about developments on the crisis.
Mr Papandreou has also held discussions on the telephone with Prime Minister David Cameron and the leaders of Qatar and Turkey in the last two days.
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Perhaps our prime minister, our foreign minister and all those who think the statement ‘Gaddafi’s end is inevitable’ means ‘Gaddafi should go’ will now take this as evidence that their fence-sitting and ambiguous language have been interpreted by the Gaddafi regime as “we’re on your side but we can’t really say so out loud”.
If that’s what they wanted, then they had better bring out their longest spoon and polish it right up before Obeidi arrives for that prospected meeting at the Auberge de Castille.
How proud it must make Malta’s political leaders to know that, along with screwed-up Greece and You-Are-Muslim-Too Turkey, Gaddafi sees them as The Weakest Link.
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Obeidi’s going to Turkey tomorrow, so he’ll be in Malta by Tuesday.
Bad timing, Joseph Muscat leaving for the US of A.
And Maltastar reported that with a photo of the Twin Towers.
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/r1/ms10dart.asp?a=14864
Which leads one to wonder how Malta would now react to a request from the Benghazi side to have its own envoy come over here for talks. One somehow gets the feeling that some form of NO would be the answer.
Update: Maltastar has since removed the photo of the Twin Towers – proving that it was not deliberate and that they didn’t realise until it was pointed it out.
These stories came through in the past hour. There are at least 200 more, all reporting Obeidi’s impending visit.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hJpEctBG2l6stYJVdRTuinfdabng?docId=6450156
http://www.jackbristol.com/newscentre/international-news/libya-gaddafi-regime-seeks-end-to-crisis-15965052
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Government-Forces-Shelled-Yafran-And-Zintan-Near-Libyas-Capital-Killing-Two-And-Wounding-Four-More/Article/201104115965052?lpos=World_News_First_World_News_Article_Teaser_Region_2&lid=ARTICLE_15965052_Government_Forces_Shelled_Yafran_And_Zintan_Near_Libyas_Capital_Killing_Two_And_Wounding_Four_More
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1630487.php/Libya-tells-Greece-it-wants-solution-to-end-conflict
http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/world/gaddafi-envoy-holds-talks-in-greece-499795.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/04/03/bloomberg1376-LJ38L66K50YD01-0LG0EOTTR4QO24GQJLEBCLBE36.DTL
http://www.abc.es/20110403/internacional/abci-hijo-gadafi-201104032209.html
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2011/04/03/internacional/1301862986.html
http://www.europapress.es/internacional/noticia-obeidi-transmite-papandreu-regimen-gadafi-quiere-solucion-conflicto-20110403223547.html
http://nos.nl/artikel/230323-athene-libie-zoekt-uitweg-uit-crisis.html
http://www.blitzquotidiano.it/agenzie/libia-ministro-esteri-grecia-sembra-che-regime-cerchi-una-soluzione-808242/
http://www.jv.dk/artikel/1095830:Udland–Libyen-oensker-kampene-stoppet
Meanwhile, the late night hot news on local TV stations was that Joseph Muscat/Lawrence Gonzi [take your pick] was, after all, to blame for 2800 18-year olds missing out on voting in divorce question referendum, while, horror of horrors Tony Zarb stated that GWU has no position on divorce,
The fence they’re sitting on cannot hold out for much longer.
Musa Kusa’s defection pure poetry.
Sometimes I watch the television news channels and despair at the way my mind works. Take the defection of Musa Kusa, the Libyan foreign minister, last week. Did I sit thinking: oh good, a little indicator that the regime is crumbling. Well, yes, for about 10 seconds.
The rest of the day was spent being ridiculously pleased with the way the words Musa Kusa sounded — better even than Boutros Boutros-Ghali, my former favourite.
After I’d stopped saying them over and over again in my head, I started setting them to music.
I tweeted about this and was pleased to find I was not alone: a distinguished journalist suggested I sing Musa Kusa to the tune of Abba’s hit Super Trouper; more than one person pointed out that Musa Kusa works very well instead of Oompa Loompa in the song from the film of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and an American correspondent said she couldn’t stop singing “Musa Kusa, you’re the one / You make bath-time lots of fun” to the tune of Rubber Duckie, the Sesame Street classic. This column’s editor suggested: “Musakusafragilisticexpialidocious / Even though his terrorist crimes are really quite atrocious.”
At the time of writing, what started off as a whim has become a full-blown affliction, effectively making it impossible to watch the news.
india.knight@sunday-times.co.uk
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On a much needed lighter tone, I spent all day humming this.
I have now reached the stage where little things please little minds. Too many horrors around at the moment. 1000 macheted to death in the Ivory coast plus all the future horrors coming out from Fukushima.
[Daphne – Well, yes, except for the fact that it’s not pronounced ‘Moo-sah’, but exactly like the identical Maltese name Muse (Moses).]
Meanwhile, the top news item on timesofmalta.com is:
Armed robber steals from man at ATM.
Oh well, I suppose reporting a visit by Gaddafi’s man and finding out whether the prime minister knows about it and what he plans to tell him can wait until tomorrow – possibly the afternoon, so that there is plenty of time for emailed replies to emailed questions.
Don’t you just love the way Karl SN cribs the news wires and internet reports and passes the stories off as his own without crediting the agencies, including the suggestion that “a source” spoke directly to him:
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/gaddafi-envoy-on-way-to-malta-to-propose-mediation-role-to-end-fighting-in-libya
Ivan Camilleri did the same thing in The Times. He lifted information from an article in EUObserver that quoted an Eritrean refugee in Malta, giving the impression that the person in question spoke to him directly for the sake of complaining about Malta.
I’ve just noticed this daft comment posted beneath the Malta Today story. David Cameron has no oil interests in Libya, he says. What in the name of Christ does he think the initials BP stand for?
“Submitted on Sun, 04/03/2011 – 23:30.
Malta should rise to the occasion and not lose such a golden opportunity to show its statehood as well as effectively to contribute to putting an end to the bloodshed.
The Prime Minister is doing well to consult with Cameron and not with Sarkozy.
Cameron cannot be accused of having oil interests in the fortunes of Libya. Sarkozy is another story altogether. Ask Obama, Merkel, even Berlusconi and they’ll tell you, not now of course, but when they come to write their autobiographies.
Oberver”
If our government had any balls they ought to tell Obaidi or Obeidi (different spelling going around) where to go.
As an official of the regime he is an accomplice to crimes against humanity.
But knowing Gonzi and Borg, they love having their miserable faces splashed on international media.
In all this I feel lost and speechless. Whatever happened to ‘par idejn sodi’? As in a song of my very much younger days “bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I.”
The Italian Foreign Minister has just given a press conference this morning declaring that Gadaffi’s Deputy Foreign Minster’s mission to Greece and eventually to Turkey and Malta as not credible.
Franco Frattini did not mince his words. Gadaffi and his family must leave the country. There is no future at all for the Gadaffi regime. Italy recognises officially the Bengazi Interim Council.
Would our politicians finally understand that standing up for basic and fundamental principles comes before the protection of self interest under the guise of being “prudent”.
If not, the devil himself will turn against us as, in fact, he has done for over 42 years under the auspices that we had a friend in Libya.
Gaddafi was never Malta’s friend. People like Gaddafi don’t have friends. They have useful idiots and what are nowadays known as ‘tools’.
Baldrick from Blackadder comes to mind.
*…that their fence-sitting and ambiguous language have been interpreted by the Gaddafi regime as “we’re on your side but we can’t really say so out loud”.”
I wouldn’t have thought this a few weeks ago but I’m now seriously worrying that may actually be our government’s position and not merely Gaddafi’s interpretation of it.
I would expect that from the PL, or at least parts of it but I had naively believed that the PN would be above that.