France’s Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday moved to set the diplomatic pace on the future of Libya, leaving David Cameron struggling to regain the initiative.
Nicolas Sarkozy's Facebook was hacked last year Photo: BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images By Henry Samuel, and James Kirkup
11:42PM BST 22 Aug 2011
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Mr Sarkozy, the French President, announced he was inviting Libyan rebel leaders to Paris for talks this week.
Alain Juppé, his foreign minister, also called for an international “contact group” meeting on Libya’s future next week.
Neither of the French announcements was co-ordinated with the British government, and British officials last night admitted they were still seeking more details from Paris about the French plans.
Mr Sarkozy was the first Western leader to call for military intervention in Libya in February this year, and France was the first Western national to recognise the Libyan rebels as the country’s legitimate government.
He has used that leading role to reinforce his domestic position, enjoying praise even from his Socialist political opponents for leading the intervention.
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France has given direct military aid to the anti-Gaddafi forces, sending them consignments of advanced weapons. Mr Cameron has ruled out a similar move by Britain.
Unlike Mr Cameron, Mr Sarkozy did not interrupt his summer holiday yesterday, remaining in the Mediterranean off his wife’s Riviera retreat at Cap Nègre .
However, the president and his officials still made clear France sees itself as taking the lead role in Western diplomacy in post-Gaddafi Libya.
Mr Sarkozy spoke on the phone yesterday to Mahmoud Jibril, the executive head of Libya's National Transitional Council, and invited him to Paris on Wednesday.
It was not clear if Mr Jibril would accept the invitation last night. Downing Street said Britain was still seeking details about the meeting from the French.
Mr Juppe also said that France was seeking to advance the next meeting of the Contact Group to next week.
The Libya group includes the United States, Britain, Arab states such as Qatar as well as the United Nations and Arab League.
It had been due to meet next on the sidelines of a United Nations summit in September. Instead, Mr Juppe said, the meeting should take place next week in Paris.
The imminent demise of the Gaddafi regime came as a huge relief to the French president, vindicating his personal gamble to topple the dictator.
"This is a subject of great satisfaction," Mr Juppé said. "France has taken risks for a just cause."
Mr Cameron, meanwhile, spoke to Mustafa Mohammed Abdul Jalil, the chairman of the transitional council.
The Prime Minister later played up the strength of Britain’s diplomatic relations with the new Libyan leaders. Britain recognised the NTC as Libya’s rulers last month.
Mr Cameron said:“Diplomatically, we have a strong mission already in Benghazi consisting of Foreign Office, military and aid specialists, and we will establish a British diplomatic presence in Tripoli as soon as it is safe and practical to do so.
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12 Comments
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stan zorin
49 minutes agoOn comment from 'anthony' about not having to fight alongside French on D-day. .. You had your chance in 1941 and you betrayed them. Instead of reinforcements arriving to France you reversed the traffic and you run back across the channel. That was also a D (Dunkirk)-day. Slimy Churchill later, to keep the morale up and "the appearance" unblemished, had the audacity to put the blame for the 1941 fiasco on the king of Belgium. Because with the hopelessly outmatched belgian army and with the country already overrun by wehrmacht he dared to to surrender. So the Belgians were supposed to fight literally to the last man, while the british later deserted their allies and run. Perfidious Albion.
______ TinCanFerry
29 minutes agoStan,
I was obviously reading a different History book.
Remind me, in your book, what does it say the French army were doing while all this was going on?
chopper
Today 02:34 AMGood. That means we can step back and let them deal with it when it all goes Pete Tong......
which it will because of the parties involved ( The French and Islamic splinter groups).
struans
Today 02:03 AMHas there ever been a French leader who wasn't a petulant little flower ?
Always remember why we maintain an independent nuclear deterrent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
edlancey
Today 01:53 AMAnything organised by the french is bound to be
a) entirely for their benefit
b) an utter disaster
Paul Haegeman
Today 01:44 AMRecommended by
1 person Premature ejaculation... the real war is just beginning... anyone with a sense of history knows that. And this time we can send in the 'rulers' children to squabble over spilt milk...
Byron Cooper
Today 12:29 AMWhen did Alain Juppe get out of prison?
keith
Today 12:07 AMRecommended by
1 person I would have thought Sarkozy would have enough on his plate with Frau Merkel and the "Club Med" fiasco
______ struans
31 minutes agoLike any exuberant culturally Latin president, Sarkozy is using foreign policy to cover up for an impending economic disaster at home. Echoes of Galtieri of Argentina ?
I think we need to amend the raison-d'etre of NATO. No longer is it to keep the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down, but to keep the Americans in, the Russians out and the French down. Report Recommend
anthony_
Today 12:02 AMRecommended by
3 peopleThank goodness we did not have to fight alongside French forces on D Day. Can you imagine the arguments about who got there first!
______ struans
35 minutes agoWe are still suffering from the effects of de Gaulles preposterous claims about Parisians liberating themselves etc..
arfermo
Yesterday 11:51 PMRecommended by
1 person I hope Cameron lets the French make the running with the new Libyan powers. We have enough trouble without any more!!
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