Russia Supports Political Role for Qaddafi's Wanted Son in Libya

[left-of-center2012]

Russia said it supports a political role for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, who’s bidding to take over the leadership of the oil-rich North African state. Qaddafi’s son could stand in national elections the United Nations plans to hold next year, though he’s wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges from 2011 including two counts of crimes against humanity.

“Our position is that no one should be isolated and excluded from a constructive political role,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told state-run news service RIA Novosti on Monday. Qaddafi’s son, “Saif al-Islam has the backing of specific tribes in Libya and all this should be part of the overall political process,” he said.

Moscow is open to Saif al-Islam’s political participation, Bloomberg reported last week, after he sent a representative to ask for Russian support earlier this month. Russia last year switched its strategy in Libya away from solely backing Khalifa Haftar, a military strongman who controls most of the oil-producing east, to opening dialogue with all rival power centers in the fractured country.

Russia, which had close ties with the Qaddafi regime until his overthrow in 2011, is maintaining contacts with all sides in Libya, said Bogdanov, who is President Vladimir Putin’s envoy to the Middle East. “We are supporting them all.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-12-23/shutdown-stock-slump-and-mattis-exit-cap-grim-year-for-trump

[DetlefK]

1. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is the guy who giddily bragged about killing people. In a TV-interview.

All over Libya rebel-groups started to rise up against Gaddafi.

While the libyan army was fighting the rebels, Benghazi, the secand-biggest city, became the center of the resistance.

The libyan army was winning and slowly approached Benghazi, because the rebels lacked capacities to transport troops off-road.

If the libyan army should reach Benghazi, they would massacre the rebels. Everybody knew that.

The EU and NATO started debating whether to save the rebels with air-raids on the libyan army.



And that was the moment when Saif al-Islam Gaddafi gave a TV-interview. He was upbeat, laughing and bragging that by the time NATO was finished debating, the libyan army would have reached Benghazi and killed every single rebel.



One day later, NATO began with bombings, Benghazi was saved and the march towards Tripolis began.