Foreign relations of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi
They were marked by severe tension with the West (especially the United States, although relations were normalised in the early 21st century prior to the 2011 civil war) and by other national policies in the Middle East and Africa, including the Libyan government's financial and military support for numerous paramilitary and rebel groups.
[1] Together with Fidel Castro and other Communist leaders, Gaddafi supported Soviet protege Mengistu Haile Mariam, the military ruler of Ethiopia,[8] who was later convicted for a genocide that killed hundreds of thousands.
[15] In August 1981, in the first incident of the Gulf of Sidra, two Libyan jets fired on U.S. aircraft participating in a routine naval exercise over international waters of the Mediterranean Sea claimed by Libya.
[19] Two months later, Gaddafi asserted that he wanted his agents to assassinate dissident refugees, even if they were just on pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca—in August 1984, a Libyan plot in Mecca was thwarted by Saudi Arabian police.
Gaddafi announced that he had won a spectacular military victory over the United States and the country was officially renamed the "Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah".
France supported Chad in this conflict and two years later on 19 September 1989, a French airliner, UTA Flight 772, was destroyed by an in-flight explosion for which Libyan agents were convicted in absentia.
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.
The UN Security Council demanded that Libya surrender the suspects, cooperate with the Pan Am 103 and UTA 772 investigations, pay compensation to the victims' families, and cease all support for terrorism.
Libya's refusal to comply led to the approval of Security Council Resolution 748 on 31 March 1992, imposing international sanctions on the state designed to bring about Libyan compliance.
[34] After the dissolution 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.
In 1999, less than a decade after the UN sanctions were put in place, Libya began to make dramatic policy changes in regard to the Western world, including turning over the Lockerbie suspects for trial.
This diplomatic breakthrough followed years of negotiation, including a visit by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to Libya in December 1998, and personal appeals by Nelson Mandela.
[45] Since 2003 the country has made efforts to normalize its ties with the European Union and the United States and has even coined the catchphrase, 'The Libya Model', an example intended to show the world what can be achieved through negotiation, rather than force, when there is goodwill on both sides.
[46] The release, in 2007, of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who had been held since 1999, charged with conspiring to deliberately infect over 400 children with HIV, was seen as marking a new stage in Libyan-Western relations.
[citation needed] Libya also still provided bounties for heads of refugees who criticized Gaddafi, including 1 million dollars for Ashur Shamis, a Libyan-British journalist.
[citation needed] Gaddafi also maintained strong links with groups that had previously received support from Libya as armed groups, but had since laid down arms, such as the African National Congress in South Africa, the URNG in Guatemala, SWAPO in Namibia, the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and the Communist Party of Chile, whose erstwhile paramilitary wing, the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, received support from Libya.
[63][65] Gaddafi strongly supported and forged close ties with pink tide-era Latin American socialist leaders, such as Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, Evo Morales in Bolivia, José Mujica in Uruguay and Rafael Correa in Ecuador.
[66][67][68][69][70] During the start of the Arab Spring, Gaddafi condemned the Tunisian revolution in January 2011, saying protesters were misled by WikiLeaks and voicing solidarity with ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
[71] The progress made by Gaddafi's government in improving relations with the Western world was swiftly set back by the regime's authoritarian crackdown on protests that began the following month.
"[78] On 10 March 2011, France became the first country to not just break off relations with the jamahiriya, but transfer diplomatic recognition to the rebel National Transitional Council established in Benghazi, declaring it to be "the sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people".
[81] Despite this, he sent a three-page letter to US President Barack Obama imploring him to "annul a wrong and mistaken action" and stop striking Libyan targets, repeatedly referring to him as "our son" and blaming the uprising on the terrorist group al-Qaeda.
[43] Starting in 2003, the Libyan government restored normal diplomatic ties with the European Union and the United States and has even coined the catchphrase, "The Libya Model", an example intended to show the world what can be achieved through negotiation rather than force when there is goodwill on both sides.
This final payment under the US-Libya Claims Settlement Agreement was seen as a major step towards improving ties between the two, which had begun easing after Tripoli halted its arms programmes.
Rammell said: "I will today sign four bilateral agreements with my Libyan counterpart, Abdulatti al-Obidi, which will strengthen our judicial ties, as agreed during Tony Blair's visit to Libya in May last year.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on 24 September 2009, the day after his address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, Gaddafi said, "As a case, the Lockerbie question: I would say it's come to an end, legally, politically, financially, it is all over.
The international view is that Libya has used the medics as scapegoats for poor hygiene conditions, and Bulgaria and other countries including the European Union and the United States repeatedly called on Tripoli to release them.
[115][116] As a result of the ban, foreign nationals from certain countries were not permitted entry into Libya at Tripoli airport,[115] including 22 Italians[117] and eight Maltese citizens, one of whom was forced to wait for 20 hours before he was able to return home.
[120] The government of Libya had in the past received criticism and trade restrictions from Western countries and organisations for allegedly providing several armed rebel groups with weapons, explosives and combat training.
[143] On 10 March 2011, France was the first country in the world to recognise the National Transitional Council as the legitimate government of Libya, in the context of the Libyan Civil War against Muammar Gaddafi.
The United States suspended its relations with Gaddafi's government indefinitely on 10 March 2011, when it announced it would begin treating the National Transitional Council in Benghazi as legitimate negotiating parties for the country's future.
