By 1976, however, Libya began criticizing France as an "arms merchant", because of its willingness to sell weapons to both sides in the Middle East conflict.

He accused France of having reverted to a colonialist policy, which former French president Charles de Gaulle had earlier abandoned.

The cour d'assise de Paris found six Libyans guilty of the attack and awarded the families of the UTA victims sums ranging from €3 000 to €30 000 depending on their relationship to the dead.

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.

[5] The same month where French forces were committed to the Libyan conflict, Saif-al-Islam Gaddafi, a son of Muammar Gaddafi, gave an interview to euronews in which he first publicly claimed that the Libyan state had donated €50 million to Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign in exchange for access and favors by Sarkozy[6] After the NTC dissolved its executive board on 8 August and tasked its chairman, Mahmoud Jibril, with forming a new one, France called the move "a sovereign decision".

[7] In May 2016, French engineering firm Technip announced plans to upgrade a major oil platform in a deal worth $500 million.

The platform, located north of Tripoli at the Bahr Essalam oil field is capable of producing 12.6 million barrels a day.