PARIS — As world leaders gathered on Thursday for a major conference to try to consolidate international support and reconstruction aid for Libya, Russia recognized the fledgling rebel government despite its opposition to the NATO bombing campaign. “Our country established and has maintained diplomatic relations with Libya since September 4, 1955, and has never broken them regardless of what kind of government was in power in Tripoli,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev had said earlier that Moscow would withhold official recognition until it appeared the rebels could unite Libya under their leadership. Moscow had been pressing for a negotiated settlement of the conflict and on several occasions had dispatched envoys to meet with leaders on both sides.
Russia, joined by China, refused to support sanctions against the Qaddafi regime. Russia had criticized the NATO bombing campaign as overstepping a United Nations resolution aimed at protecting civilians.
On the eve of the conference, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France praised the working of the NATO alliance in support of the rebels, calling it “an indispensable tool” despite Washington’s decision to take a back seat in the war.
“For the first time since 1949 NATO was put at the service of a coalition led by two determined European countries, France and Great Britain,” Mr. Sarkozy told French ambassadors and other dignitaries on Wednesday in a wide-ranging hourlong speech at the Élysée Palace, an annual performance to set the themes of French diplomacy that was more pointed than usual, with presidential elections next year.
Mr. Sarkozy, as ever, was passionate about his government’s accomplishments, both in helping oust the defeated president of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, four months ago, and now Colonel Qaddafi in Libya. He was also defiant about the need to aggressively meet the economic and political challenges of the future. It was vital to act, he said, “not submit.”
Libya was a particularly fierce point of pride, where the bombing campaign did halt an anticipated massacre of rebels, in contrast to the Bosnian wars, when United Nations troops were unable to stop the killings of 7,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica. Mr. Sarkozy said Libya proved “a strong contrast” to past European weakness, and justified his decision to integrate France into NATO’s military command in 2009, ending the long separation initiated by de Gaulle.
Recalling the complaints that “France would lose its independence” and “its image would be destroyed in the Third World,” he said, “Our Libyan friends ask every day for more action from NATO!”
A senior French official called the transition to a legitimate political leadership in Libya vital, adding that “there is a risk that the transition will fail.”
In Iraq, the official said, “there was a successful military operation and a failed transition.” In Libya, he said, the new leaders would have to be more autonomous. “It is they who know what is good for the Libyan people, and we are there to listen to them, to help them,” he said.
Europe must focus more on its military capabilities, Mr. Sarkozy said. “President Obama has presented a new vision of U.S. military engagement that implies that the Europeans must assume more of their responsibilities,” Mr. Sarkozy said. “If we don’t draw the necessary conclusions, Europe will wake up to a difficult reality.”
He praised Arab youths’ desire for liberty and democracy, and the ability of French diplomacy to rebound from a late start in support of the Arab Spring. The comments referred to the period in which his country remained supportive of the Tunisian leader, even as he was being toppled, and was slow to recognize the Egyptian revolt.
At a time of rising concerns over illegal migration, he called for partnership with all the countries of the Mediterranean, calling it both the obligation and the future for Europe.
On the Mideast stalemate, Mr. Sarkozy said negotiation efforts led by the United States had reached a dead end and should be rethought. He said he hoped that all 27 member nations of the European Union could find a common position at the United Nations on the Palestinian effort to get recognition as a de facto state. He did not say what the position should be.
For Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, whom Mr. Sarkozy had once courted (as he had Colonel Qaddafi), he had harsh words, saying that the Syrian leader had caused “irreparable” damage to his credibility and that France would do everything “legally permissible” to bring about his downfall and the Syrian people’s aspirations to freedom and democracy.
Mr. Sarkozy also issued a strong warning to Iran, saying that its continuing enrichment of uranium and its missile program could bring about “a pre-emptive attack,” presumably by Israel. Iran’s “military, nuclear and ballistic ambitions constitute a growing threat that may lead to a pre-emptive attack against Iranian sites that would provoke a major crisis that France wants to avoid at all costs,” Mr. Sarkozy said, blaming Iran for refusing to negotiate seriously about its growing nuclear stockpile.
France has been a fierce critic of Tehran’s nuclear program, even as it urged Israel to stop all settlement activity and negotiate seriously for a two-state solution.
Acknowledging Germany’s central role in calming Europe’s lengthy financial turmoil, he thanked the chancellor, Angela Merkel, for her support in helping preserve the troubled euro and for backing the idea of a balanced-budget amendment for the 17 countries using it.
He also noted France’s central role, as the current president of the Group of 20 large economies. France will push at a summit meeting in November “a plan of action for growth, including precise and concrete commitments from the main economies,” he said, calling on all countries, in particular China, to promote imports for domestic consumption in the face of a major global slowdown.
Mr. Sarkozy seemed slightly distracted as he spoke. A new book charges that a judge heard unsworn testimony from a nurse of the L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt that he received campaign cash from Mrs. Bettencourt in 2007, a charge that the Élysée denied fiercely.
Src : The New York Times
