The United States apologized for ridiculing the call for jihad by Gadhafi against Switzerland, and sent an envoy to Libya to clarify the misunderstanding. This was the condition set by Libya in order to maintain good relationships with American oil companies.
The spokesperson for the State Department, Philip Crowley, had ridiculed the call for holy war launched by Colonel Gadhafi against Switzerland, saying that it reminded him of the Libyan leader’s diatribe on the UN stage last September, “… lots of words and lots of papers flying all over the place, not necessarily a lot of sense.” Libya subsequently ordered Washington to apologize and warned U.S. oil companies. Yesterday, Philip Crowley apologized, “These comments do not reflect U.S. policy and were not intended to offend. I apologize if they were taken that way.”
Yesterday, Washington announced that Jeffrey Feltman, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, will travel to Tripoli. This morning, a Libyan government newspaper, Al Fajr al Jadid, spoke of “victory” in the Libyan case.
The conflict between Bern and Tripoli was caused by the forceful arrest in Geneva of Colonel Gadhafi’s son, Hannibal, on a complaint accusing Hannibal of the mistreatment of two servants. In retaliation for a Swiss decision, Libya has stopped issuing visas to citizens of countries of the Schengen area.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.