Heroes’ welcome for Sarkozy and Cameron in Libya

NICOLAS SARKOZY and David Cameron landed in Libya to a heroes’ welcome yesterday, promising help for the new rulers French and British air power helped install and being told the favour may be repaid in oil and reconstruction deals.

Just three weeks after rebel forces backed by NATO bombers overran Muammar Gaddafi’s capital, French President Sarkozy and the British prime minister were met by the smiling leaders of the disparate coalition which overthrew him and took impromptu cheers from medical staff while visiting a hospital.

At a news conference held under heavy security and the eyes of attack helicopters overhead, interim premier Mahmoud Jibril spoke of “our thanks for this historic stance” taken by the two European leaders, whose backing for the February uprising drew a hesitant United States and some Arab governments into a war that did not always look set to end well for the rebels.

Both offered continued military support against Gaddafi loyalists holding substantial parts of the country, as well as in the hunt for the fugitive strongman and others wanted for crimes against humanity.

Sarkozy said he would raise the issue with neighbouring Niger, a former French colony where some of Gaddafi’s senior aides and one of his sons have sought refuge.

“This is not done. This is not over,” Cameron said in pledging further military and other aid. “There are still parts of Libya that are under Gaddafi’s control. Gaddafi is still at large and we must make sure that this work is completed.”

He said a Franco-British move at the United Nations today could mean London alone unfreezing $19 billion of assets, while help with healthcare and disarmament was also ready.

With a clear eye on public opinion at home, he drew attention to the case of a boy wounded by a grenade at his school who would be treated by British specialists, while Sarkozy rebuffed suggestions of self-interest in the war, declaring: “We did what we did because we thought it was just.”

Though he hotly denied talk among Arabs of “under-the-table deals for Libya’s riches”, the head of the National Transitional Council (NTC), Mustafa Abdel Jalil, did say that, in return for their helping end 42 years of rule by Gaddafi, key allies could expect preferential treatment in future.

Though insisting no deals had been cut in advance of France and Britain backing the rebellion against a ruler with whom both had been improving relations, Abdel Jalil said: “ . . . we will appreciate these efforts and they will have priority within a framework of transparency.”

States which did business with Gaddafi, notably China and Russia, have been concerned their lukewarm attitude to the NTC may cost them economically.

Picture: David Cameron and Nicholas Sarkozy meet patients at the Tripoli Medical Centre in Libya. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA