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Gadhafi urges support for 'wise' and 'peaceful' Obama
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has urged global support for the "peaceful" policies of "wise" US President Barack Obama in his pursuit of a world without nuclear weapons."I appeal to everyone to give Obama time and to support his policies, as long as his program remains peaceful," Gadhafi told a gathering late Thursday in a huge tent erected in the desert near the eastern coastal city of Sirte. He was speaking during commemorations marking the anniversary of the bombing by American planes on April 15, 1986, of Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi which killed 41 people, including Gadhafi's adoptive daughter. Then President Ronald Reagan ordered the raids in retaliation for the bombing blamed on Libyan agents of a Berlin disco in which a US serviceman was among three people killed. "We have confidence in our son Baraka ["chance" in Arabic] Obama and, if he continues his wise and peaceful policies, we will help and support him so that they succeed," Gadhafi, dressed in white suit and black shirt, told the crowd of around 1,000 people. At the same time, the Libyan leader urged Washington to change its policies toward the Palestinians so as to garner support in the Arab world, saying "the Arabs hate the US" because of its support for Israel. He said Obama "should abandon his naive solution" to the Middle East conflict through his support for international peace efforts which aim to create two separate states -- one for Israelis and one for Palestinians. Such a solution, Gadhafi said, has "no chance of succeeding." Instead he proposed the creation of a single democratic state for Israelis and Palestinians -- an idea floated before the UN General Assembly last September. US-Libyan ties have been improving since 2003, when Gadhafi renounced the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and agreed to compensate families of the victims of the 1988 plane bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. Posted by: Fred 2010-04-18 |
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