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 France |  Libya |
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Franco-Libyan relations are the relations between Libya and France. For the most part, their historical relations are complicated. Libya maintains its embassy in Paris. France also has an embassy in Tripoli.
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France | Libya |
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Franco-Libyan relations are the relations between Libya and France. For the most part, their historical relations are complicated. Libya maintains its embassy in Paris. France also has an embassy in Tripoli.
Libya developed particularly close relations with France after the June 1967 War, when France relaxed its arms embargo on nonfront-line Middle East combatants and agreed to sell weapons to the Libyans, such as the Mirage 5 aircraft. In 1974 Libya and France signed an agreement whereby Libya exchanged a guaranteed oil supply for technical assistance and financial cooperation. 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. France was also Israel's primary arms supplier (from the 1947–1949 Palestine war until the mid-1960s), including selling Israel the same Mirage 5 fighters as it sold Libya. Libya later criticized France for its willingness to sell arms to Egypt. Far more serious was Libya's dissatisfaction with French military intervention in the Western Sahara, Chad, and Zaire. In 1978, Muammar Gaddafi noted that although economic relations were good, political relations were not. He accused France of having reverted to a colonialist policy, which former French president Charles de Gaulle had earlier abandoned. [1]
In the 1980s, Libyan-French discord centered on the situation in Chad. As mentioned, the two countries found themselves supporting opposite sides in the Chadian Civil War. In late 1987, there were 1,300 French troops in Chad, primarily defending the Chadian capital N'DJamena from attack, including an air attack using Tupolev Tu-22 strategic bombers; France also gave $90 million in military aid to Chad that year.". [2] However, French policy did not permit its forces to cross the sixteenth parallel. Thus, direct clashes with Libyan soldiers seemed unlikely. However, Libyan diplomats still accused France of having "direct responsibility" in the escalation of the war, and the Libyan news agency JANA called the raid a "combined Franco-American military action" and charged that Washington and Paris were "behind the aggression against Libya." [2]
French-Libyan relations deteriorated substantially in the aftermath of the 1989 UTA Flight 772 bombing. On 19 September 1989, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 airliner operated by French airline UTA (Union de Transports Aeriens) as UTA Flight 772, was destroyed by a bomb in the cargo hold, killing all 170 passengers and crew (including 54 French nationals). France blamed Libya for the attack. 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. The French relatives' group "Les Familles du DC10 d'UTA"[8] signed an agreement on 9 January 2004 with the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations accepting a compensation payment of $170 million United States dollars, or $1 million for each of the 170 UTA victims. Similarly, US District Judge Henry H. Kennedy (of the District of Columbia) also found Libya directly responsible for the bombing in 2007 (in a trial brought by the families of 7 US nationals killed on the flight). France, as well as other nations affected by this bombing, have continued to seek financial compensation from Libya.
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. [3] French Rafale and Mirage 2000 fighter planes also conducted the first military strikes against Gaddafi's forces by the Western nations and the United Nations. On 19 March 2011 approximately 20 such French warplanes destroyed Libyan tanks and armored vehicles. [4] [5] Some reports state that these French air strikes began even before the end of the emergency meetings in Paris between the leaders of the Western nations and therefore were not coordinated with the air strikes of other nations, causing some friction among the allies. [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". In a statement, the French Foreign Ministry said a new board should be "rapidly designated". [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. [8]
On July 25, peace talks were held in Paris between Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and Marshal Khalifa Haftar. A ceasefire was agreed upon, and elections were promised to be held as soon as possible. [9]
In November 2017 President Macron called the sale of migrants at slave auctions reported to be taking place in Libya "a crime against humanity", and requested a meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss this treatment of migrants in Libya and to consider sanctions against Libya if the slave auctions are not stopped. [10] In February 2018 Macron criticised the 2011 NATO intervention in Libya for creating the conditions for instability and extremism. [11]
In March 2021, President Macron said that on March 29, the French embassy will reopen in Tripoli, Libya. [12]
The foreign relations of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi (1969–2011) underwent much fluctuation and change. They were marked by severe tension with the West 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.
UTA Flight 772 was a scheduled international passenger flight of the French airline Union de Transports Aériens (UTA) operating from Brazzaville in the People's Republic of the Congo, via N'Djamena in Chad, to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France, that crashed into the Ténéré desert near Bilma, Niger, on 19 September 1989 with the loss of all 170 people on board, after an in-flight explosion caused by a suitcase bomb. It is the deadliest aviation incident to occur in Niger.
Muammar Gaddafi became the de facto leader of Libya on 1 September 1969 after leading a group of young Libyan Army officers against King Idris I in a bloodless coup d'état. After the king had fled the country, the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) headed by Gaddafi abolished the monarchy and the old constitution and established the Libyan Arab Republic, with the motto "freedom, socialism and unity". The name of Libya was changed several times during Gaddafi's tenure as leader. From 1969 to 1977, the name was the Libyan Arab Republic. In 1977, the name was changed to Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Jamahiriya was a term coined by Gaddafi, usually translated as "state of the masses". The country was renamed again in 1986 as the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, after the United States bombing that year.
The Libyan–Sudanese relations refers to the long historical relations between Libya and Sudan, both are Arab countries.
The Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, known also as GIFCA, was an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) with headquarters formerly located in the Libyan capital Tripoli and offices in Chad, Germany, the Philippines and Sudan. GICDF was established in 1998 upon signature of its charter in Geneva, Switzerland. The president of the Foundation was Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, a son of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Libya–United States relations are the bilateral relations between the State of Libya and the United States of America. Relations are today cordial and cooperative, with particularly strong security cooperation only after the 2012 attack on the US liaison office or mission in Benghazi. Furthermore, a Gallup poll conducted in March and April 2012 found that Libyans had "among the highest approval" of US leadership in the entire Middle East and North Africa region.
Chad–France relations are the diplomatic relations between the Republic of Chad and the French Republic. France controlled Chad from 1900 until the country's independence in 1960. Both nations are today members of the Francophonie and the United Nations.
Chad–Libya relations have arisen out of centuries of ethnic, religious, and commercial ties.
Belarus and Libya established diplomatic relations in 1992. Belarus has an embassy in Tripoli. Libya has an embassy in Minsk.
Mutassim Billah Gaddafi was a Libyan Army officer, and the National Security Advisor of Libya from 2008 until 2011. He was the fourth son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and a member of his father's inner circle. His mother was Safia Farkash, who was said to be a Hungarian from Bosnia & Herzegovina. He was captured during the Battle of Sirte by anti-Gaddafi forces, and killed along with his father.
The Libyan civil war or the 2011 Libyan revolution, also known as the First Libyan Civil War was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Zawiya on 8 August 2009 and finally ignited by protests in Benghazi beginning on Tuesday, 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security forces who fired on the crowd. The protests escalated into a rebellion that spread across the country, with the forces opposing Gaddafi establishing an interim governing body, the National Transitional Council.
Relations between Libya and the United Kingdom were initially close and positive after the British Armed Forces helped rebel forces to topple Muammar Gaddafi's regime in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. British officials have visited Libya several times since then, including two visits by Prime Minister David Cameron on which large crowds turned out to welcome him. The British Armed Forces are also helping to train Libya's National Army as part of wider cooperation on security matters. Security conditions have deteriorated since 2014, when the United Kingdom suspended operations from their embassy in Tripoli, into a second civil war. In June 2022, the United Kingdom re-opened its embassy in Tripoli.
The international reactions to the Libyan Civil War were the responses to the series of protests and military confrontations occurring in Libya against the government of Libya and its de facto head of state Muammar Gaddafi.
The Libyan Civil War began on 17 February 2011 as a civil protest and later evolved into a widespread uprising. By mid-August, anti-Gaddafi forces effectively supported by a NATO-led international coalition were ascendant in Tripolitania, breaking out of the restive Nafusa Mountains in the south to mount an offensive toward the coast and advancing from Misrata on loyalist-held cities and villages from the north and east.
Denmark–Libya relations refers to the current and historical relations between Denmark and Libya. Bilateral relations are tense because of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy and the 2011 military intervention in Libya. Denmark is represented in Libya, through its embassy in Cairo, Egypt. Danish Foreign Minister Villy Søvndal visited Libya in February 2012, for the opening of the new representative office in Tripoli.
The following lists events that happened during 2011 in Libya.
The following lists events that happened during 2007 in Libya.
Libya allegedly bankrolled the presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy with up to €50 million in pay-outs. Sarkozy has denied wrongdoing and rejected suggestions he was a Libyan agent of influence during his tenure as president of France. He has since officially been convicted of corruption in 2021.
Libya–North Korea relations are relations between North Korea and Libya. North Korea established formal diplomatic relations with Muammar Gaddafi regime in Libya in 1974. The North Korean government maintains an embassy in Tripoli. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Libyan government under Muammar Gaddafi established close ties with the North Korean government and purchased a significant amount of North Korea's weaponry.
Israel–Libya relations describes the relations between Israel and Libya. While there have been no formal diplomatic agreements between Israel and Libya since Libya's independence, there have been some notable events and developments in their relationship over the years. One of the main reasons for Libya's antagonism towards Israel has been its support for the Palestinian cause. Libya, under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi, was a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause and provided aid and support to various Palestinian militant groups.
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