The Arab World’s Loves the Apology to Gaddafi

A spokesman from the U.S State Department joked about the Libyan appeal to Jihad against Switzerland. He has now taken his remarks back for political and economic reasons. Arab media has heavily covered his about-face.

On the websites of major Arab television stations Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, the article entitled “The United States Apologizes to Gaddafi” is a hit. In Lybia, the daily newspaper Al-Fajr Al-Jadid noted that ‘’Libya won a victory in the battle initiated by the spokesman of the U.S. State Department.” From Tripoli, the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 that he accepted the apology and deep regret expressed by the Department of State.

This move puts an end to the ‘’diplomatic dispute ‘’ between Libya and the United States. At what cost, though? The Libyans have tried to make a maximum profit off of the comments made on Tuesday, March 9, 2010 by the spokesman, Philip Crowley.

The latter apologized for the statements he made when the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi called for jihad (holy war) against the Swiss confederacy because of the ban on construction of minarets voted by the Swiss in November 2009.

On February 26, the spokesman for American diplomacy ironically said: “I saw that report and it just brought me back to a day in September, one of the more memorable sessions of the U.N. General Assembly that I can recall: lots of words and lots of papers flying all over the place, not necessarily a lot of sense.”

Yesterday, March 10, 2010, Philip Crowley rectified the matter by stating: ‘’we remain firmly committed to U.S.-Libyan relations. ‘’ This reversal came after the Libyan ambassador to Washington was quick to clarify the message from Gaddafi stating that jihad did not mean military war, but commercial war.

Today, many wonder about the apology from Washington. How can Americans apologize to a Statesman, Gaddafi, who called for jihad against a democratic state?

Initially, the U.S. administration certainly condemned the inflammatory statement of the Libyan leader.

However, what was perceived as ‘’support of the United States for Switzerland ‘’ has provoked an immediate response from Tripoli. U.S. oil companies have been convened on the spot by the Libyan authorities. The latter have threatened to give priority to the Chinese and the Russian companies to exploit the various oil fields.

U.S. economic interests in Libya explain in part an apology from Washington. The U.S major corporations Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Hess, Marathon and Occidental have invested billions of dollars in infrastructure in Libya. Other U.S investments were made in the fields of defense, transport, health and construction. The volume of trade between the United States and Libya increased from $60 million in 2004 to $4.5 billion in 2009.

Despite the escapades and the unpredictability of the Libyan leader, Washington has a geopolitical interest in maintaining good relations with Tripoli. “Gaddafi has dismantled its nuclear program after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He has especially given unconditional support to the United States to hunt down terrorists in Afghanistan. Finally, Libya has played a major role in Darfur and Chad. The United States needs Gaddafi to avoid the emergence of a new terror front in Africa,” according to Habidi Asni , the director of the Center for Studies and Research on the Arab and Mediterranean World.

The apology from Washington may arise from another concern. The videos of Philip Crowley’s jokes have been circulating in mass in the Arab world. What does the U.S. have to fear? Perhaps the case put the U.S in as difficult of a situation as that of Denmark at the time of the controversy caused by the cartoons of Mohammed. Malek Chebel, an anthropologist of religion, recognizes that being tougher on Gaddafi will give him too much importance among jihadists. We cannot let him propagate the call to jihad without doing anything. We also do not measure the damage that such a call may have in only the Muslim world but also in Europe. It is irresponsible.