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Moussa announces failure of Tripoli mission
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TRIPOLI,
October 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Libya remains
determined to pull out of the Arab League, the Secretary-General of
the pan-Arab organization Amr Moussa announced Saturday October 26,
after talks with its leader Muammar Qaddafi.
"I
have not succeeded in my efforts to persuade the Libyan side to go
back on its decision," Moussa told reporters after a one-hour
meeting with Qaddafi, although he added he would continue his
"consultations" in Tripoli, reported Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
On
Thursday, October 24, Libya told the Arab League it intends to pull
out of the 22-member organization, an official at the Libyan African
Unity Ministry said.
"Libya
officially informed the Arab League of its intention to withdraw from
that organization," the official told AFP, without elaborating.
A
senior League official said it reflected Qaddafi's frustration with
the organization for failing to take action in the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict and to counter the U.S. threats to invade Iraq.
Moussa
said Friday October 25, that Libya's bid to withdraw from the Arab
League stems from its dissatisfaction with the general Arab stance on
key matters.
"We
think that what Libya has done is a sort of protest against the Arab
position in general," Moussa told journalists on his return to
Cairo from Portugal.
This
is not the first time Qaddafi has threatened to quit the Cairo-based
organization.
He
did so in March, saying he felt the League had failed the Palestinians
in their conflict with Israel.
Libya
also considered quitting in 1998 because of the "defeatist"
attitude of Arab states towards the sanctions imposed on Tripoli by
the United Nations over the Lockerbie plane bombing.
In
recent years, Libya has increasingly stressed an African rather than
Arab orientation to its foreign policy.
The
Libyan leader has also on occasions harshly criticized the League.
"Stop
begging. Ever since 1957 the Arabs have been negotiating for (the
return of) 42 percent of Palestine, while the Africans have not let go
of an inch of their territory," he said in July, speaking of
Libya's support for African liberation movements.
In
Jordan, meanwhile, a pro-government newspaper Friday, October 25,
criticized Libya's bid to quit the Arab League but said the move was
unlikely to cause any long-term damage to the pan-Arab organization.
"Libya's
decision is regrettable and surprising but it will not affect too much
the future of the Arab League, particularly because Libyan decisions
were always chauvinistic and unpredictable," Al-Rai said in an
editorial.
Tripoli
had "fired a bullet into the Arab League at a time when the Arabs
are in most need of rallying together for the sake of the interests of
the Arab people," the newspaper said.
It
criticized Libya for failing to back fully Arab causes, despite the
Arab support which Tripoli had received during its crisis with the
United Nations over the 1988 Lockerbie plane bombing.
Libya
"was among Arab countries which contributed least to Arab causes,
mainly the Palestinian cause, and Tripoli now appears ready to pay 2.7
billion dollars in compensation for victims of the Lockerbie
plane" bombing, it said.
Compared
to the package being negotiated for the mid-air bombing for which a
Libyan intelligence agent has been jailed for life, "Libya has
never paid such a sum to help poor Arabs throughout its history,"
Al-Rai said.
