Libya - Foreign Relations Under Qadhafi
Since 1969, Qadhafi had determined Libya's foreign policy. His principal foreign policy goals have been Arab unity, the incorporation of Israel and the Palestinian Territories into a single nation of "Isratine," advancement of Islam, support for Palestinians, elimination of outside, particularly Western, influence in the Middle East and Africa, and support for a range of "revolutionary" causes.
After the 1969 coup, Qadhafi closed American and British bases on Libyan territory and partially nationalized all foreign oil and commercial interests in Libya. He also played a key role in promoting the use of oil embargoes as a political weapon for challenging the West, hoping that an oil price rise and embargo in 1973 would persuade the West, especially the United States, to end support for Israel. Qadhafi rejected both Soviet communism and Western capitalism, and claimed he was charting a middle course.
Libya's relationship with the former Soviet Union involved massive Libyan arms purchases from the Soviet bloc and the presence of thousands of east bloc advisers. Libya's use, and heavy loss, of Soviet-supplied weaponry in its war with Chad was a notable breach of an apparent Soviet-Libyan understanding not to use the weapons for activities inconsistent with Soviet objectives. As a result, Soviet-Libyan relations reached a nadir in mid-1987.
After the fall of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, Libya concentrated on expanding diplomatic ties with Third World countries and increasing its commercial links with Europe and East Asia. These ties significantly diminished after the imposition of UN sanctions in 1992. Following a 1998 Arab League meeting in which fellow Arab states decided not to challenge UN sanctions, Qadhafi announced that he was turning his back on pan-Arab ideas, which had been one of the fundamental tenets of his philosophy.
Instead, over the last decade, Libya pursued closer bilateral ties with North African neighbors Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco, and greater Africa. It had also sought to develop its relations with Sub-Saharan Africa, leading to Libyan involvement in several internal African disputes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Mauritania, Somalia, Central African Republic, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. Libya had also sought to expand its influence in Africa through financial assistance, granting aid donations to impoverished neighbors such as Niger and oil subsidies to Zimbabwe, and through participation in the African Union. Qadhafi had proposed a borderless "United States of Africa" to transform the continent into a single nation-state ruled by a single government. This plan had been greeted with skepticism. In recent years, Libya had played a helpful role in facilitating the provision of humanitarian assistance to Darfur refugees in Chad, contributing to efforts to forge a ceasefire between Chad and Sudan, and bringing an end to the conflict in Darfur.
One of the longest-standing issues in Libya's relationship with the European Union and the international community was resolved in July 2007 with the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who had been convicted in 1999 of deliberately infecting over 400 children in a Benghazi hospital with the HIV virus. The six medics were sentenced to death in 2004, a sentence that was upheld by the Libyan Supreme Court, but commuted in July 2007 by the Higher Judicial Council to life in prison. Under a previous agreement with the Bulgarian Government on the repatriation of prisoners, the medics were allowed to return to Bulgaria to finish their sentence, where upon arrival the Bulgarian president pardoned all six. The Benghazi International Fund, established by the United States and its European allies, raised $460 million to distribute to the families of the children infected with HIV, each of whom received $1 million.
Since Libya's 2003 decision to dismantle its WMD programs and renounce terrorism, it had sought to actively reengage the international community through improved bilateral relations with the West, as well as seeking leadership positions within international organizations. Libya served on the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors from 2007-2008. From 2008-2009, Libya served a 2-year non-permanent tenure on the UN Security Council representing the Africa group. In 2009, Libya became chair for 1 year of the African Union and played host to several AU summits. In 2009, Libya assumed the UN General Assembly presidency. Libya hosted the March and October 2010 Arab League summits and an Arab-African summit in October 2010, and holds the Arab League presidency for 2010-2011.
After 40 years in power, Qadhafi made his first trip to the United States in September 2009 to participate in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City and deliver his country's speech. Qadhafi's UNGA speech reinforced Libya's assimilation within the international community and its emerging importance on the African scene. The trip came on the heels of the release from Scotland and return to Libya of convicted Pan Am 103 bomber Abdel Basset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi.
In February 2011, Libyans began peaceful protests calling for a more open and democratic country. Qadhafi and his forces responded with widespread violence against the people of Libya, committing serious human rights abuses against civilians. The United Nations, through Security Council Resolution 1970, condemned the brutality and referred the situation in Libya to the International Criminal Court. Wide ranging sanctions were introduced with the threat of further action. There was also unprecedented criticism of Qadhafi’s actions at the League of Arab States and African Union. In March 2011, Libya became the first country to be suspended from the Human Rights Council. But Qadhafi ignored all of this. As the situation continued to deteriorate, the United Nations Security Council agreed resolution 1973 on 17 March which authorised "all necessary measures to protect civilians."
The fall of Sirte, the death of Qadhafi and the declaration of National Liberation signal a new chapter for Libyan people as they strive to build a free, democratic and inclusive Libya. The UN welcomed Libya back into the international community. Many are looking forward to the opportunities associated with a new era in Libya relations with the world.
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