FRENCH ATTITUDE TOWARD LIBYA - Oct 2017

Let me explain the aims of France on Libya's oil  The NATO mission in Libya, is not new, it was commissioned by the French government of President Nicolas Sarkozy who, a few days after the outbreak of the riots, asked for an urgent meeting of the Security Council of the United Nations to take appropriate measures against the suppression of uprisings by theregime. Muammar GheddafiA diligence, for many, due to reasons dictated by mere internal calculations rather than real will to put an end to the bloody action implemented by the Rais. The upcoming elections and popularity in the drastic drop in the President, the need to broaden the oil slice across the Alps and the will to put an end to the "annoying" treaty of friendship and 2008 Italian-Libyan cooperation are some of the aims that prompted France to act in Libya. It should take a step back. Tensions between the colonel and Paris are long-standing, just remember the contrasts in the long war of Chad, continued in the eighties and culminated in the attack of 1989 against the DC 10 of the French company Uta, exploded in the skies over Niger, killing 170 people.

The arrival of Sarkozy at the Elysee seemed to herald a new phase opening with the countries of the Southern Mediterranean and also with Libya. Emblematic of the role played by the French president, and then-wife Cecilia, for the release of five Bulgarian nurses sentenced first to death and then to life imprisonment on charges of infecting 400 children with the HIV virus at the hospital El -Fathi Benghazi. The nurses after eight years in captivity, were released in July 2007 thanks to the mediation of the Elysee couple who had visited Libya several times to talk to Gaddafi and his beloved daughter Aisha. The game was won by France against Romano Prodi who had spent to seek a diplomatic solution "to the incident". A few months after Gaddafi had planted, including thousands of controversy, its Berber tent in front of the Elysee, signing contracts worth over $ 10 billion that would have allowed France to sell an entire fleet fighter, manufactured by French aeronautics giant Dassault and a mega investment to build nuclear power plants in Tripoli and surroundings. In the wake of mended relations between France and Gaddafi Paribas had acquired at the end of 2010, 19% of the Sahara Libyan Bank, a rise of the BNP Paribas French subsidiary's capital in Libya equal to 146% of the previous funds available and guaranteeing transactions. On the other hand, there is little to be surprised. France sells arms to Gaddafi since the seventies, as indeed many other countries, including Italy.

In January of 1970 Paris signed a contract with the Tripoli government for the provision of a mirage jets. It was the beginning of a fruitful relationship, with ups and downs, has gone on for many years. However, there were still clutches. Libya did not give up intervening in African disputes, often in anti-french key, from the conflict in Sierra Leone until the conciliation interventions in Darfur, Kenya, Niger and Mali. Despite diplomatic efforts, the Rais had refused to enter the great French Union for the Mediterranean, considered a form of new colonialism. Not only that, the Libyan leader had not honored the agreements of 2007, preferring to respect the Italy-Libya treaty, by which pocketed annual checks for $ 250 million to spend on infrastructure, for the benefit of Italian companies.

Yet Sarkozy had tried everything, even involving the UAE, willing to train Libyan pilots for the French aircraft Rafale and co-fund the operation of renewing its fleet with the already mentioned Dassault.

There would be, then, the issue of pan-African currency. In one of the emails sent to Hillary Clinton, and published by the US State Department on December 31, 2015, the official Sidney Blumenthal revealed, among other things, that Gaddafi wanted to replace the CFA franc, which is used in 14 former colonies, with a ' other coin pan-African initiative that would have risked creating economic independence of North Africa with the new currency. Another possible reason French interventionism emerge years after the death of Nasser. On March 6, 2015, the former interior minister, Claude Gueant, one of the closest collaborators of Nicolas Sarkozy, was placed in custody as part of investigations into the alleged financing of presidential campaign that brought Gaddafi to "Sarko" all 'Eliseo in 2007. Perhaps this is why the colonel, Become aware stabbed in the back, in an interview with Fausto Biloslavo in Il Giornale few months before he was killed, he said: "I think Sarkozy has a problem of mental disorder. He said the things that can pop out only by a madman. " Finally, to have given further impetus French intervention in Libya was probably the desire of France to strengthen its political influence in the region, promoting the image of a country not in collusion with the old autocrats, but ready to invest in demands for freedom and democracy of the people "on the southern shore."

On the other hand Paris had lost little time in Egypt and Tunisia, the lintels of their diplomatic strategy. What better occasion of Libya to recover credit in the Mediterranean on the boil? Maybe it should not venture too in other conjectures, but in any case, the examples could continue. This is enough, however, to understand French motives. The proof is that already on April 13, 2011 (ie before the death of Gaddafi) Sarkozy had received secretly General of the NTC, Fatah Younis - killed in Benghazi in still unclear circumstances in July 2011 - probably to discuss guarantees for future energy contracts. Conti at hand is much simpler: before hostilities began producing oil in Libya amounted to almost a million and 600,000 barrels a day, about 2% of world production. Of these about 52% was in the hands of 35 international companies, led by Italy's Eni, which in 2010 had excelled, with its 267,000 barrels per day, on Germany's Wintershall and Total, the French firm, respectively, to 79,000 and 55,000 barrels per day. Not surprisingly, Nicolas Sarkozy, after backing the NTC valiantly in the war of "liberation" of Libya, will be presented soon to ask for the bill under the watchful eye of the managing director of the Total group, Christophe de Margerie. Then the French newspaper Libération even talked of an agreement signed by the spokesman of the NTC, Mahmoud Shammam, ready to grant to France on 35% of the new Libyan oil contracts. News then denied by the parties, but at the very least insinuated a doubt.

The rest is recent history. After years of waiting guilty even Hollande's France decided to join the UN plan for the national accord government headed by Fayez al-Sarraj. Again, though, it is difficult to find in the intervention Elysée some consistency, unless you want to interpret in an optical mere national interest. France, with the classic, natural balancing act, at the UN had its willingness to support the Gna, but in the meantime continued to support Haftar and its regional sponsors.

It is the daily Le Monde to unravel the mystery in February 2015, revealing the existence of French special forces stationed in the base of Benina, near Benghazi, in support of the general Cyrenaica in actions against the Islamic State and other militias Islamists loyal to Tripoli. On the other hand the rapid Haftar army advanced towards Benghazi would not take place except with large external aid of the French (and English), but also Egypt's al-Sisi and at least the Saudis and UAE that in addition to providing weapons, they acted as guarantors on Egyptian payments. It outlined so more and more clearly the role of the French in the axis east of the Libyan conflict: the transalpine weapons, the Egyptian pivot, militias Haftar and guarantees of the Gulf. We could say "chapeau" flourishing business if these were not born on the ashes of collective agreements: UN that France had endorsed.

It now remains to ask the reasons for such diligence. Again just follow the oil route. The goal of the French is to gain access to oil reserves of Cyrenaica, resuming mining activities, widening the radius of those exploration started in 2011 after the fall of Gaddafi, maybe watching a little 'further towards the Sirte basin is full of resources. This is where, in the silence of the desert and away from prying eyes, French companies, as well as American, British, German and Spanish are investing large sums in exploration activities in Brega areas in the Gulf of Sirte, where they would present many British companies, Zillah, which sees a strong French activities, as well as Beida in Cyrenaica and Kufra, just to name a few. Sometimes things are much simpler than you think.