Posted on 08/03/2007 10:01:41 AM PDT by Republicain
PARIS (AFP) - Libya has reached a major arms deal with the European aerospace giant EADS, the first since a weapons embargo was lifted on Tripoli in 2004 and a potential source of embarrassment for French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
French Defence Minister Herve Morin confirmed Friday that a letter of intent had been signed for the sale of Milan anti-tank missiles and a radio communications system worth, according to a Libyan official, 296 million euros (405 million dollars).
News of the deal was set to fuel controversy, coming the week after Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia helped broker the release of six foreign medics, sentenced to life imprisonment in Libya on charges of infecting hundreds of children with the AIDS virus.
Sarkozy, who travelled to Tripoli to sign a nuclear and military cooperation agreement the following day, has denied France traded the medics' freedom for arms, presenting their release as a French and European diplomatic coup.
But Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's son, Saif ul-Islam Kadhafi, has said unblocking the medics' case paved the way for the weapons contracts.
His comments appeared to have have wrongfooted the French presidency, as Sarkozy prepared to leave on a summer vacation, reportedly at the US lakeside resort of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.
The leader of France's opposition Socialist Party, Francois Hollande, demanded a parliamentary enquiry to decide if the government behaved inappropriately.
"If there was no exchange, if there was no bartering, why sign a military agreement with the Kadhafi regime, which has been responsible for terrorist acts, which has been a rogue state?" he asked.
Morin said the missile accord was "an agreement between a company and a country," which was approved in principle by the government of Sarkozy's predecessor Jacques Chirac in February 2007.
"We have to be clear about this: there is no longer an embargo, Libya is a country that has given up its entire military nuclear programme, and which fully accepts inspections from the IAEA," the UN's atomic watchdog.
"Therefore there is no reason for countries not to engage in discussions on modernising the Libyan army," Morin said. "If it's not us, it will be others. There are a lot of countries in talks with Tripoli: the Italians, the Russians, British...."
He said EADS executives had been in Libya for six weeks to hammer out the details, though he acknowledged that "on arms contracts, the finalisation, the last touch, generally comes via a political act, a visit from the president, or prime minister."
Libyan officials have sought to cast the accord as a state-to-state deal with France, marking Tripoli's return to the international fold following the lifting in 2004 of a European arms embargo imposed after the 1988 Lockerbie bombing over Scotland.
The Libyan purchases were agreed with subsidiaries of EADS, which is controlled by French and German public and private interests, and of Britain's BAE Systems. France holds the largest public stake in EADS, with 15 percent.
The German government, which attacked the French promise of nuclear cooperation with Libya as a proliferation risk, stopped short of criticising its European Union partner over the arms deal.
"The decision relating to the exports of arms to a third country is fundamentally one to be taken by each of the EU member states," said a government spokesman, adding that "EU member states are politically linked to the European code of conduct which is compulsory for weapons exports."
EADS confirmed that a deal for the Milan missiles had been "finalised" between Libya and MBDA, the world's top manufacturer of guided weapons systems jointly owned by EADS, BAE Systems and the Italian Finmeccanica.
The French-designed Milan anti-tank missile is a portable medium-range weapon that has been sold to more than 40 countries since the 1970s.
The company said the deal had been secured after 18 months of negotiations and was now "waiting the signature of the Libyan client". The sale of the Tetra communications system was still being finalised, it added.
Quid pro quo.
PARIS, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - President Nicolas Sarkozy supports the creation of a parliamentary enquiry to determine whether France offered Tripoli arms contracts in exchange for the release of six jailed foreign medics, his office said Friday.
"The president of the republic favours the initiative of Bernard Accoyer, speaker of the National Assembly, calling for the creation of a parliamentary committee of enquiry into recent developments in the relations between France and Libya," the presidency said in a statement.
"The committee's works will confirm all the statements made by the French authorities."
France confirmed Friday that Libya has reached a major arms deal with the European aerospace giant EADS to purchase anti-tank missiles and a radio communications system worth 296 million euros (405 million dollars), according to Libya.
The deal with EADS is the first since a European weapons embargo was lifted on Tripoli in 2004.
The opposition Socialist Party immediately demanded a parliamentary enquiry to decide if the contracts, announced a week after Sarkozy helped broker the release of six foreign medics, were offered as a counterpart for their freedom.
Sarkozy has denied all suggestions of a trade-off, presenting the case as a French and European diplomatic coup.
French Defence Minister Herve Morin said the missile accord had been in the pipeline for months, though he acknowledged that "on arms contracts, the finalisation, the last touch, generally comes via a political act, a visit from the president, or prime minister.
Parliament speaker Accoyer, a member of Sarkozy's ruling UMP party, said earlier he supported calls for an enquiry and was confident it would ease the opposition's concerns.
It’s not like France has any use for weapons. Why not sell them?
I got a real good deal on French war surplus rifles. Never been fired , only dropped twice.
France confirms major arms deal with Libya should be retitled “France confirms major arms deal with Hamas and Hezbollah via Libya” or maybe “France confirms major arms deal to counter U.S. buildup”
Good to know that some things never change - France is still the Whore of the Nations.
“It’s not like France has any use for weapons. Why not sell them?”
Well, if we consider that countries sell weapons just because they don’t need it, we are in a bad position (our last weapons deal with Saudi Arabia is much bigger than the french one).
I worry more about this Sarkozy. We may have been wrong to support him that much. I had hard time trusting this guy from teh beginning.
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