Word: gaddafi
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While the sudden air strike strained relations among America's allies, Libya was equally at odds with a few of its friends. "The Kremlin got some real heat last week from its Arab allies for not showing more support for Gaddafi," said a Western diplomat in Moscow. To correct that impression perhaps, Pravda printed an interview with the maverick Libyan last week, in which he gave lavish thanks to Party Chief Mikhail Gorbachev for his support. Nevertheless, the Soviets remain wary about attaching themselves too closely to a Libyan regime that is mercurial at best. Moscow zestfully pounced...
Even in the fight against Libya, not all the West European allies were yet of one mind. Greece, for example, continues to maintain that it has not been shown "tangible proof of Gaddafi's hand in recent terrorist attacks. Though persuaded at last to support the European Community resolution, the Greeks have so far refused to expel any Libyans. That leaves 42 of Libya's so-called diplomats in Athens, as against two Greek envoys in Tripoli. "We want to begin a dialogue with Libya," said one Greek government official, "which is more than can be said for the Americans...
More vexing to the U.S. is the position of its moderate Arab allies, who found themselves compelled by the air raid to rally behind their Libyan brothers. "The Arabs are more upset with the way the U.S. went about punishing Gaddafi than with the fact they did it," says one European diplomat at the U.N. "They would have preferred less obtrusive means." One possible gesture of conciliation that may be discussed at the Tokyo summit would be for Europe to enlist all other North African nations in the fight against terrorism. Explained one top Italian official: "Rather than allowing Gaddafi...
Only in Libya did passions seem as undivided as ever last week. Though rumors that Gaddafi was now part of a five-man ruling junta appeared to be unfounded, the colonel did seem shaken by the attack. Yet even as life in Tripoli returned to normal, so too did its regime's posturings. In the hope of milking their unusual status as victims for all its propaganda value, the Libyans posted grisly photographs of civilians, many of them children, killed by the raid. They also treated foreign journalists to carefully controlled tours of nonmilitary areas that had been damaged, they...
...evening, the reporters were unexpectedly herded onto buses and driven to the site of the colonel's bombed-out home. There, bathed in moonlight and flanked by two recently wounded sons, sat Gaddafi's wife Safia. Clutching a crutch as her silver-trimmed black robe billowed in the stiff breeze, the usually private woman vowed to kill with her own hands the pilot who had shattered her house and to pursue eternal vengeance on all Americans "unless they give Reagan the death sentence." For all its staginess, the eerie scene was another reminder that despite last week's precautions...