Word: libyans
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...Suspicion and hostility towards Chad's rebels was echoed by the African Union, whose new president, Tanzanian Jakaya Kikwete, pledged that "in case of a rebel victory, we'll excommunicate them from the African Union". Even the region's former bad boy sponsor of rebellions, Libyan leader Mohammar Ghaddafi, condemned the rebel offensive as "a flagrant violation" of African security accords. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon noted that with violence and instability rife in throughout the area, "these developments are extremely dangerous, and could provoke an escalation throughout the region...
...invariably allow his personal life to dominate when he wants to divert media attention away from political troubles. That was certainly the case when he sprung his romance with Bruni on a French public that had been watching Sarkozy take a prolonged bashing over his hosting incorrigible Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. And it was déjà vu when he announced his long-anticipated divorce on the same day he faced the first massive strikes to protest his reform program. Indeed, given that strategy of using hype and glitter to escape from political hardball, why would Sarkozy even...
...touched the ground in Paris on Monday when the verbal ammunition among French politicians began flying over why President Sarkozy had chosen to host him during a five-day visit. France's junior minister for human rights Rama Yade blasted her government, saying that the visit would allow the Libyan leader to "wipe off the blood of his crimes." Unwilling to play the polite guest, Gaddafi spat back on Tuesday, saying said France had human-rights problems of its own in its treatment of immigrants, who include millions of North Africans...
...Despite his feisty talk, Gaddafi is a near-perfect customer for Sarkozy, if not quite yet his savior. Flush with revenues from record-high oil prices, the Libyan leader is rebuilding his military virtually from scratch, since decades-long Western sanctions banned him from purchasing arms and replacing broken equipment. "Libya's military inventories during the embargoes degraded to the point of being useless," says Matthew Smith, economics analyst for Jane's, the London-based defense research group. The organization this week estimates Libya's military spending was about $620 million last year - small change for the gargantuan defense industry...
...negotiations. "If we start to enter into that debate there wouldn't be any international trade," he said. Yet other doubts could also emerge, including the real danger of selling lethal weaponry to an uncertain ally, who has only just emerged from a very long isolation. Says Brookes: "If Libyan Rafales were to end up with a third party who used them against Western forces, the French government could be seriously embarrassed." More embarrassing, perhaps, would be losing the deal altogether...