What was it all for?
Abdul Ati Obeidi
Now that Abdul Ati Obeidi has paid his flying visit to the Auberge de Castille, we must ask ourselves exactly why Malta agreed to this demand.
Obeidi is Libya’s secretary for European Affairs, not deputy foreign minister as he has been described in the press – unless something has happened to deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaaim, who has disappeared from press conferences at the Hotel Rixos and been replaced in that function by his interpreter, Musa Ibrahim.
Malta stood to gain precisely nothing from meeting this man and stood to lose rather a lot in terms of credibility, perceived integrity and status in this conflict. It wasn’t ‘just a meeting’ and it certainly wasn’t a case of ‘why not’, as the two Labour and two Nationalist politicians on BondiPlus said last night.
That they think of it in those terms reveals that they have no idea how public affairs issues pan out in the international context – or even, to put it mildly, what correct behaviour is in normal life in the domestic scenario.
I am quite perplexed to see that these senior politicians, our prime minister included, do not understand that agreeing to meet is a message in itself, regardless of any spoken messages expressed face to face.
That message is: we tolerate you still. We have time for you. I am prepared to put myself out by acceding to your demand at short notice for a flying visit, several hours after I heard the news that you planned to visit me from the news wires and not from your ambassador, and I will then stay at my office until almost midnight to accommodate you.
That is exactly the message which Gaddafi’s regime, the opposing National Council and the international community will have picked up. That is the message which the thinking parts of the electorate back home on the Maltese government’s ranch will have picked up as well.
By agreeing to meet Gaddafi’s foreign minister, the prime minister of Malta, like the prime minister of Greece and the foreign minister of Turkey – not quite salubrious company there, but there you go – held out hope to him of some sort of opening. Otherwise, why bother?
You don’t get somebody to fly to Malta for a couple of hours merely so that you can say ‘Gaddafi must go’. You can say that over the telephone, but the best way to communicate it is to do what everyone else did – according to Gaddafi spokesman Musa Ibrahim – and refuse to see him in the first place.
While speaking at a press conference yesterday morning – a press conference in which he did not mention, until The Times brought it up, the pending visit which we had read about on the news wires the night before – Lawrence Gonzi said:
“We have never said no to such requests. There were times when we spoke to the Libyan Prime Minister over the telephone and times when he visited. We see this as an opportunity for Malta to add its voice to that of the international community in asking for the atrocities to end.”
He did not know at the time that Franco Frattini would be on the international news channels in just a few minutes, telling the world that he had spoken to Greece and that Obeidi’s proposals were not credible because they involved Gaddafi and his family staying on, and that Italy has recognised the Benghazi National Council as Libya’s sole representative.
I suspect that if he had known this was going to happen, Dr Gonzi would have given a different reply to The Times and would also have refused the request for that visit.
When our closest neighbour, Italy, acts in so final and decisive a manner, Dr Gonzi and Dr Borg are left with no option but to say ‘Gaddafi must go’. Dr Gonzi finally had the words dragged out of him last night, some six weeks into the conflict, though he said them with neither the passion nor the conviction he used when arguing his case about the 2,800 18-year-olds off the electoral roll for the divorce referendum.
And Tonio Borg was not there last night to meet his Libyan counterpart, so we don’t know what he thinks. He is in Rome, talking to Franco Frattini. When he gets back (if they don’t want to bother him on his mobile phone), perhaps some reporter will ask him whether his friend Frattini let him know ahead of time that Italy would be recognising Benghazi, or whether Dr Borg was reduced to finding out about it through the television, as the rest of us did.
The only positive thing I have to say about this public relations disaster is that at least the people at Castille had the good sense to have Gaddafi’s envoy leave the building separately to the prime minister – a clear statement in itself, and a good way of ensuring there are no photographs of the two together.
The prime minister left by the main entrance, accompanied by two wary aides. Gaddafi’s envoy was made to leave, from what I could gather via the news clips, through the side-door on St Paul Street – and that was a statement too.
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I feel that the whole business is getting too hot to handle especially by lack of consultation. “We know how to handle it”. But in fact, do we? I think that Cameron has been left out of the equation purpously. I mean left out by Maltese politicians.
Ah, I see that we do know what Tonio Borg thinks, and the word ‘Gaddafi’ doesn’t figure. He’s “the current administration” – administration, as though it’s business as usual:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110405/local/frattini-and-borg-discuss-immigration-libya
He doesn’t tell us that they discussed Italy’s recognition of Benghazi, either.
Do they all resemble “mad dogs”? This Abdul Ati Obeidi just gives me the shivers. He looks and acts weirdly.
[Daphne – No, he just looks like the peasant he is, and has even chosen a wig to match. He looks like he should be in a Sergio Leone film.]
http://www.moviemarket.com/library/photos/269/269086.jpg
Don’t agree this one is much better.
[Daphne – Ajma, that’s one of the serious ones, a bandido guapo. I’m thinking of the ‘comic interlude’ ones, the sort who get thrown out of windows by the heroes.]
Until such time as Malta recognises the rebel interim council, there are no official channels other than the regime’s.
Greece and Turkey also have yet to recognise the interim council as the ‘new government’ of Libya and had no qualms to receive, hear and formally dismiss Abdul Ati Obeidi’s overtures.
From what was reported, Dr. Gonzi did likewise tell the emissary that violence has to stop and the Gaddafis have to go.
Once Malta recognises the Benghazi Interim Council as ‘the’ Libyan authority, then doors will be slammed in the faces of Gaddafi’s emissaries.
[Daphne – Only France and Italy have recognised the Benghazi Council, but all countries except Malta, Turkey and Greece have refused to meet Gaddafi’s emissaries. Musa Ibrahim complained about this during his press conference last night.]
It is possible to recognise the Transitional National Council as the interlocutor of the opposition in Libya.
Loghob bid-diskors … inkredibbli. Jghidu “amministrazzjoni prezenti’ minflok ‘gvern ta Gaddafi’.
Il-verita hi din, jekk inti taccetta li tiddiskuti ma’ xi hadd (irrispettivament jekk tikkundannahx jew le) inti tkun qed tirrikonoxxilu l-awtorita.
Il-media hasbuna cwiec? Tal-ghageb x’gurnalisti tal-habba gozz ghandna. Kif hadd ma jsaqsih mistoqsijiet diretti bhal dawn lill-prim ministru?
Jien nibqa nsostni li parti mil-inkwiet f’dal-pajjiz hu l-gurnalismu FJAKK li ghandna. Ibda minn Xarabank u spicca sat-Times. F’keffa wahda nitfahhom. U Alla jbierek kollha jghidu li ghandhom l-aqwa tims investigattivi u jiftahru kemm rebhu premijiet.
They have got to be kidding. While refusing to participate in the coalition, our government lays out rows of seats so that guests can worship a new plane which the Armed Forces have just received, as the prime minister pours champagne to welcome it.
Look at this surreal photo.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110405/local/afm-welcomes-new-king-air-aircraft
I’m not sure I agree with you on this one. We have a situation where the whole world is insisting that Gaddafi MUST GO. He is evidently not going anywhere without a fight. The situation we have today is that he is fighting – killing his own people but damned if he is leaving Libya.
The only way to get rid of the bastard is if he is killed by accident or design. The same applied to the rest of his family.
Unless, of course, an exit is negotiated.
I realise that justice needs to be seen to be done and all that and that he must face trial for the genocide – but which is the lesser of two evils – a negotiated exit or a protracted genocide. Unfair as it may be I know what my personal preference would be.
Now the only way an exit is going to be negotiated is if his envoys are engaged in dialogue. From where I am sitting – turning our backs completely on his messengers will send a strong signal to him but it will be unlikely to resolve the dire situation we now have.
I hear what you are saying but how can this end if not by dialogue or assassination?
[Daphne – Dialogue and negotiation about what, exactly? The opposite party begins from the standpoint that Gaddafi’s continued presence is not negotiable. So there is no point in meeting, full stop.]
Dialogue and negotiation about an exit and exile – how else will this be achieved if nobody is going to talk?
What is the alternative – other than assassination of Muammar and his happy family?
[Daphne – I imagine that’s what everybody hopes somebody else will do.]
As a Libyan, Gaddafi and his clowns should not be offered an exit or exile. They are the ruthless criminals of our times and should be brought to justice for all the atrocities they are still committing against Libyans and those they committed against other nations. The Libyan blood spilled by him, his sons and his goons is not cheap and is not going to go in vain. We owe that to those who paid their life so we can have freedom and join the civil world.
I say again, the Libyan people have been sold cheap.
I thought there was a ‘no-fly zone’ over Tripoli. So did the allies stop slinging Tomahawks while this man flew in and out?
[Daphne – Keep up, fanny. He drove across to Tunisia and took a plane there.]
One question: if there is a no fly zone over Libya, how are these emmissaries flying in and out?
[Daphne – Keep up, Darren. They drive across the border to Tunisia and take a plane out. Then they fly back to Tunisia and drive to Tripoli. The closest airport is Djerba.]
That begs the question why Tunisia lets them in, and lets them fly.
Some countries allow them into the Prime Minister’s office.
oops..
They gave him what Thatcher calls the oxygen of publicity.
We need an orange party. I’ll be more comfortable voting into government a coalition of libertarians and greens than the sclerotic mess we have in parliament.