NEWS | Wednesday, 12 December 2007

Libya to buy France’s super jet fighter

Libya became the first foreign state to buy France’s latest super fighter jet, a French official said on Tuesday, fuelling criticism of President Nicolas Sarkozy for putting business before human rights.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi visited France for the first time in 34 years, seeking to bolster his international standing after decades as an outcast of the West.
He dined at Sarkozy’s official residence on Monday, after which both leaders oversaw the signing of a series of contracts and framework agreements, including one on entering exclusive talks on the purchase of arms from France. It also includes co-operation for the setting up of a ‘peaceful’ nuclear reactor.
“We want to work with the Libyans since there is no more arms embargo. Libya has gone back to being a client like any other,” Sarkozy’s spokesman David Martinon told LCI television.
Sarkozy said on Monday the deals to be signed with Libya totaled more than 10 billion euros ($14.66 billion), providing jobs for French workers. Sources said several of the deals were still being
negotiated.

An official at Sarkozy’s office had said Libya expressed a “strong intention” to buy 14 Dassault Aviation-made Rafale fighter jets, as well as 35 helicopters, six ships, armoured vehicles and air defense radar.
Such a deal would be the first foreign order of Rafales since the jet went on the market eight years ago. The official said the defense hardware deal is worth some 4.5 billion euros.
Gaddafi’s son Seif has said his father hoped his visit would extend Libya’s developing relationship with France, which has taken off since Nicolas Sarkozy became French president in May.
Obstacles to wider cooperation were removed soon after when Sarkozy sent his wife to Libya to collect five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor convicted of infecting children with HIV/AIDS.
The medics were facing execution but were released after years of intense negotiations led by the European Union.
The two countries then signed commercial and military accords, including arms sales and an agreement to build a nuclear reactor for water desalination.
“This is a long process,” Seif said on the Franco-Libyan rapprochement, adding that his father’s visit to Paris “shows that we have reached the top of our relations.”
Libya hoped to become a “modern country with modern infrastructure,” he said, urging French companies to invest in the north African country.
Gaddafi, who pitched a Bedouin-style heated tent in the gardens of Baron Gustave de Rothschild’s one-time mansion, will sign $15 billion of contracts before leaving on 15 December.
Sarkozy has broken with Middle East policies of his predecessor Jacques Chirac. He renewed contact with Syria to try to solve Lebanese political gridlock and joined the U. campaign against Iran’s nuclear program, all while openly bidding for more business from the region.
The effort has already yielded more than $10 billion of contracts for French companies, including Areva SA, Alstom SA and Total SA.