Gaddafi: ‘Shocked to be betrayed’

Muammar Gaddafi has accused Malta, Italy and other European leaders of “betrayal” for having turned their backs on him during the current uprising, and has threatened to form an alliance with Al Qaeda should military attacks be launched to oust him.

The defiant ruler stressed in an interview with Italy’s Il Giornale newspaper which is owned by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s brother, stressed that he was “really shocked by the attitude of my European friends.”

Gaddafi insisted that the EU leaders should have never demanded that he quits power. “In this way they have threatened and damaged a series of major accords on security that were in their interests along with the economic cooperation we had.”

As he laughed at the ongoing rebellion, stressing that it was “doomed to failure”, Gaddafi threatened to form an alliance with al Qaeda if Western governments ordered an invasion of his country. “I think and I hope that the Libyan people will reconsider their economic, financial and security ties with the West,” he said.

As his troops counter-offensive against rebels continued amid the international community's indecision over whether to impose a no-fly zone over the country, Gaddafi said his opponents were fighting a “lost cause”.

“They have only two options - surrender or escape,” he said. “The Libyan people are with me. The rest is propaganda.”

Foreign Minister Tonio Borg continued to remain non-committal on the possibility of imposing a no-fly zone over Libya, or parts of it, insisting that Malta would not necessarily back such a decision even if made at UN and EU level.

Reiterating the position he took last weekend in Godollo, Hungary during an EU Foreign Ministers’ meeting that discussed the Libya crisis, Tonio Borg told MaltaToday that the island prefers to abide by a “non-military solution”.

Questioned on reports that Malta was backing German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s position not to rush into a military solution in Libya, Tonio Borg replied, “Germany is so far insisting that it is rather too early to go for a military incursion on Libya, and we as a neutral country cannot swiftly back calls for military action.”

He added that while Malta will continue to insist that it will not be used as a military base for any military intervention,  it would be more appropriate that any military action would happen without a specific UN mandate.

Such a mandate has so far appeared to be rather bleak given that Russia is showing clear signs of non-committal within the UN Security Council.

But asked if it is rather too late to intervene on Libya, given that Gaddafi loyal troops have made huge advances and the uprising risks being crushed, Tonio Borg stressed that the same happened when France was close to waiving its veto before the US-UK alliance had attacked Iraq.

Borg reiterated his responsibility towards Malta’s Constitution that clearly spelt out the island’s neutrality status.

When asked about the Gaddafi’s remarks about betrayal, Tonio Borg said that if he [Gaddafi] is referring to Malta’s position, “I’m sorry, I called a spade, a spade, and I will continue to call a spade a spade.”

Meanwhile, Castille, the Foreign Office and the Finance Ministry were still not in a position yesterday to divulge any information as to what assets belonging to Gaddafi, family members and regime officials have been frozen as the UN and EU sanctions have requested all Member States.

The Asset Tracking Unit was supposed to have drawn its report and submitted it to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi. After two weeks, this report has not been made public or accessible to the media.

Until the uprising, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was the last EU leader to have personally met Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, while government was finalising a ‘Friendship Treaty’ with the North African regime.

A mixed commission of Maltese and Libyan governmental officials were expected to meet and finalise the pending issues for the consolidation of this Treaty which was proposed by Malta, on the same lines as Italy had reached an accord with Tripoli in 2008.