Newspaper Article

The price of power: paying homage to the 'Brother Leader'

Howden, Daniel

2009

Overview

The answer for Ukraine, and much of the rest of Europe, may well lie on and off the shores of Libya. The North African kingdom, the size of Germany, France, Spain, and Italy combined, has potentially vast reserves of sweet crude, easy to refine and just a short hop across the Mediterranean - a potentially priceless resource. Libya has proven reserves of more than 40 billion barrels of oil and may have as many as 100 billion. These are easily the largest reserves in Africa. Only the international embargo of the 1990s that left the country unable to develop them has stopped Libya catapulting into the Saudi league of suppliers. It is rated by many of the oil majors as the single biggest exploitation opportunity in the world. But even this may be dwarfed by the natural gas reserves thought to be lying with the oil under the surface. This is why President [Hans-Rudolf Merz] was prepared to humiliate himself by apologising for the arrest last year of one of Mr [Gaddafi]'s son's. Hannibal Gaddafi had been detained after he and his wife were accused of mistreating two domestic employees while in Geneva. * Western political A-listers were conspicuously absent from Colonel Gaddafi's knees-up, cautious of the political outcome of embracing the veteran dictator, whatever their interest in his oil. But the Libyan leader was far from friendless at the celebrations - even if those in attendance had to rub shoulders with a somewhat motley crew. The British charge d'affaires and French Minister for Co-operation will have made very sure to avoid the likes of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Sudanese President Omar Hassan el-Bashir, who, with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, formed a formidable anti-Western axis. Regional stalwarts were also out in force, with leaders from Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen, and Benin; Turkey and Ukraine, both keen to bolster ties with oil-rich Libya, were also represented, by first lady Amina Erdogan and Prime Minister Julia Tymochenko respectively. Only one fly in the ointment: the Moroccan delegation, disgusted at the presence of separatist Saharan group the Polisario Front, stormed out in a huff. All in all, [Gordon Brown] will be pleased he had other plans. 'Gaddafi's regime must be kept strictly at arm's length'

• Publisher: Independent Digital News & Media
• Subject: Brown, Gordon / Howden, Daniel / Merz, Hans-Rudolf