Colonel Muammar Gaddafi
Photo: Reuters
Gaddafi’s son Sayf al-Islam
Photo: AP
Libya sticks to one state solution
Son of Libyan leader Gaddafi says Israelis, Palestinians should live in one bi-national state
Secret talks between Israeli and Libyan diplomats in the course of the last two years did little to change Tripoli’s attitude towards the Jewish state as Colonel Muammar Gaddafi seems to be holding on to his belief that Israel has no right to exist as a country for the Jews, Gaddafi’s son Sayf al-Islam told a news conference in Berlin on Friday.
“Only one state for two peoples, Israeli and Palestinian, is a solution --- like the South African model,” Gaddafi said in the German capital where he took part in a security conference.
The 34-year-old, who is the Libyan leader’s eldest son, has been groomed to replace his father. Since completing his studies in Austria Sayf has filled some public posts in Libya.
A number of journalists, including this reporter from Israel’s leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, hurled questions at the young Libyan who said that Libya wants to see Jews and Palestinian Arabs living peacefully in one state. “I do not believe that Israel can survive as a narrow strip of land. The minute we reach a new consensus, Libya will be ready to recognize the new bi-national state. At the moment, the two people are establishing two countries in that small land.”
Asked whether he is willing to mediate between the West and Iran over its controversial nuclear ambitions Gaddafi said that he will be happy to help if he is given the opportunity. “I have many friends in Iran and Europe. If we can do something positive, we will be very happy to do so,” he said.
Sayf is believed to having convinced his father to abandon a program to acquire weapons of mass destruction and to improve Libya’s relations with the West, notably the United States and Britain.
The young Gaddafi said that the lack of democracy in the Arab world is “a shame” saying “time has come for democratization, yet not through violence as we are seeing in Iraq, we need to support social development in the Arab world.”
“It is can’t be that in the 21st century nations are governed by dictatorships. This issue is as important for us as the talks on weapons of mass destruction,” Gaddafi said.
Gaddafi recounted the mediator role he played between his father and Western officials over Libya’s program for banned weapons, saying that in the face of a “superpower like the United States” Tripoli had no choice but to seek to defend itself and the only way to do so was to acquire non-conventional weapons.
“At the moment we have the protection of the international community and this is more useful than acquiring defense weapons,” he said.
