Gaddafi seeks diplomacy in Iraq
Posted: November 15th, 2006 | Author: Aaron | Filed under: middle east, politics, uk, usa, world |Since returning to the diplomatic fold, Libya has shown confidence and imagination on the world stage. Colonel Gaddafi has written his own political manifesto, which is a sort of Arab-Third Way, and the Libyans are becoming international negotiators with several impressive resolutions to their name.
However First Post’s Robert Fox has a story that conveys just how far Gaddafi’s Libya has come. The Gaddafi family have constructed a diplomatic strategy that could possibly be the saviour of Bush and Blair:
The Libyan government is floating a proposal to host an international peace conference on the Middle East. It would focus on the crisis in Iraq, but would also embrace Iran and the rapidly deteriorating situation in Lebanon.
The Gadaffi family have indicated that their preferred co-chairmen are Mikhail Gorbachev and Bill Clinton. They enquired about Nelson Mandela, but were politely told that he is now too sick to travel.
It sounds fanciful, of course; a bit of left-field thinking by the clan Gadaffi and the Libyan government. Maybe. But it might be just about the only thing going - and such meetings have borne fruit in the past.
One of the architects of the plan is Saif Gadaffi (right), who has a good record in negotiating with difficult parties, including jihadi hostage-takers in the Philippines.
And it’s worth recalling that the Oslo accords - which brought at least an uneasy handshake between Israel’s Yitzhak Rabin and the PLO’s Yasser Arafat in 1993 - started out in much the same way.
I think the solution to the problems we face in Iraq have to come from the Islamic World. Most foreign policy watchers in the West already accept that the war has been a strategic and operational catastrophe. And a solution to the tempest we have created may only be possible with some confessional grovelling from our leaders.
Iran and Syria have both enormous resources, and enjoy significant influence over Iraq’s warring factions. If they can be brought in from enforced diplomatic isolation, in spite of the Dick Cheney’s inevitable protestations, a new coalition may just be able to save the people of Iraq.
Maybe Libya does have the key?
Hat-Tip: TrafficOne (email)
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Really, leaders should seek every chance, every possible way to solve the Middle East chaos, not only Iraq - which I find very hard to solve while the foreign presence stays. Colonel Gaddafi, though, is not very much trusted by the regimes established in the zone, and I personally believe he is not a trustworthy character.
Anyhow, as I say solutions must be sought everywhere to stop the wave of killings on each side of the fence.
where is a pic to go with this blog entry, tyger!
“Confessional grovelling from our leaders”, Tyger ?!!
Christ, it will need more than “confessional grovelling” from Tony Blair. He has to go, and fast. If the Labour Party wants to win next May, they will have to do more than distance themselves from him. They have to get rid of him ‘a la Thatcher’; with a credible, electable candidate to fill the post.
In the public mind, I believe, this obscene catastrophe of empire-building in the Middle East is still a “Bush-Blair” catastrophe - not a Labour Party one.
But if the Party can’t oust him, and quickly, it will also become a permanent Labour catastrophe.
Whoever is seen to fully support Gaddafi’s diplomatic efforts may well be the future prime minister.
If they
I agree with Jose. Never turn down an opportunity to solve the Middle East’s problems by negotiation, but recognise that Qadhafi is a real maverick with a penchant for self-publicity. Libya is not a steady platform from which to launch such a delicate initiative.
It would of course have been better for us to have engaged Syria and Iran from a position of strength. Unfortunately, it now looks like we’re asking for their help in getting out of the mess we’ve made. It’s hardly the best negotiating position.