Dragging Libya into normalisation

Tripoli government tries to gain US support via the Israeli gateway

Most of the 2011 ‘Arab Spring’ revolutions were sponsored and supported by the US and some European and Arab governments — with the cooperation of some political Islamist factions — in order to overthrow Arab regimes that always opposed normalisation with Israel, supported Palestinian resistance, held out for fair oil prices, and pursued policies opposed to sectarianism and American hegemony. Top of the list was Libya, which is in the headlines these days because of the meeting held by the Tripoli-based National Unity Government’s foreign minister, Najla al-Mangoush, in Rome last week with her Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen. The encounter was arranged by the Italian government as a prelude to bringing Libya on board the ‘Abraham Accords’ bandwagon.

The Tripoli government headed by Abdelhamid Dbeibah falsely claimed that it had no prior knowledge of the meeting and it was merely a chance encounter. But the Israeli foreign ministry revealed it was in fact the culmination of a series of contacts arranged by the Italian foreign minister — though it was supposed to be kept secret — aimed at securing US support for Dbeibah’s government against its domestic enemies, via the Israeli gateway.

If Dbeibah, as he claims, did not know about the meeting, and that by sacking her and forming a committee of inquiry he was punishing her, why did he facilitate her departure to Istanbul on a private jet under the supervision of his security chiefs? Why didn’t he bar her from travelling? And who arranged that private plane for her in the dead of night?

It is hard to understand how a government can call itself ‘national’ when its foreign minister spends over an hour meeting the minister of a state it claims not to recognise, not to have relations with, and to ban meetings with any of its officials.

The so-called ‘Libyan Revolution’ which overthrew Col. Muammar al-Gaddafi was supported from day one by France’s famously pro-Zionist president Nicolas Sarkozy and his right-hand man Bernard Henri-Levy. The latter boasted in his memoir that his role in inciting the bombing of Libya by NATO warplanes was motivated by his devotion to Israel. He predicted that the post-Gaddafi ‘revolutionary’ government would be the first to normalise with Israel, and that the ‘revolutionaries’ had sent him a message in this regard to deliver to the Tel Aviv government.

On Sunday night, Libyans loyal to the legacy of Omar al-Mukhtar took to the streets of Tripoli and other Libyan cities after news broke of this normalisation move. They raised Palestinian flags, chanted slogans in support of Palestinian resistance, called for Mangoush to be tried, and demanded the downfall of the government.

The ‘revolutionaries’ robbed the Libyan people of hundreds of billions of dollars. They plunged the country into bloody chaos, and partitioned it into numerous fiefdoms. They deprived the Libyan people of security and stability, and forced hundreds of thousands to flee abroad.

The Libyan people were, and remain, victims of a conspiracy to destabilise and dismember their country and impoverish them, though Libya has the biggest oil and gas reserves in North Africa. The fake slogan of ‘democracy’ was used to implement this scheme using the deadly and devastating power of NATO warplanes and missiles.

Gaddafi’s regime was not overthrown because it was ‘dictatorial’. It was targeted because of its long-term vision to unite the African continent and provide it with an independent gold-backed currency that would free it from the dominance of US and European currencies. The ugly and shameful way in which Gaddafi was executed shows how much he was hated and his anti-colonial policies hurt. Even the former US president of African origin, Barack Obama, washed his hands of Gaddafi’s brutal murder and expressed regret for taking part in the assault on Libya during his final days in office. He blamed Sarkozy and the British prime minister, David Cameron.

The ‘national unity’ government committed the outrage of normalisation, then hid behind its foreign minister, and then renounced her. This kind of deception will not fool their heirs of Omar al-Mukhtar. If Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not want to be seen as complicit, he should send the minister back on the same private plane she arrived on, to face an independent committee of inquiry untainted by the involvement of the complicit government.

I opposed the invasion of Libya from day one on every platform available, disregarding threats. I warned against the West’s destructive plans and those who were colluding with them to dismember the country and loot its resources. Now the reality can be seen clearly, if belatedly, and the Libyan people are standing up against it. There will be more to come.

Dragging Libya into normalisation