(C) CHIRAC VISIT TO LIBYA MODESTLY SUCCESSFUL, BUT NOT

C O N F I D E N T I A L TRIPOLI 000031 E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/16/2014 TAGS: PREL PTER FR LY VE SUBJECT: (C) CHIRAC VISIT TO LIBYA MODESTLY SUCCESSFUL, BUT NOT HAPPY REF: PARIS 8864 CLASSIFIED BY: Gregory L. Berry, Chief of Mission, U.S. Liaison Office, Tripoli, Libya. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) Summary: French Embassy DCM Maurice Dabdoush (please protect) December 15 confirmed rumors circulating around Tripoli that Jacques Chirac's November 24-25 visit to Libya was not a happy experience. While the French President accomplished his most important goal - that of simply showing up here, as his UK, Spanish, Italian, and German counterparts have done in the past year - there were no major breakthroughs in foreign policy or business contracts. Libyan "game-playing", including a surprise welcome ceremony in front of Qadhafi's bombed-out house from the 1986 raids and trying to invite Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez along to the state dinner, irritated Chirac and cost a certain amount of good-will, Dabdoush said. END summary. The Rumors -------------- ¶2. (C) Dabdoush and newly-arrived French Ambassador to Libya both departed Libya within hours of Chirac. By then Tripoli was abuzz with rumors that the visit had gone poorly. The take of many here, including the British embassy, was that Chirac's efforts to "ingratiate" himself with the Libyans after the coolness of recent years and the ill grace with which the UTA dispute was resolved had failed. The diplomatic community and the media interpreted the fact that Chirac's welcoming ceremony was held at Qadhafi's former house in the Bab al-Azizia barracks, which suffered a direct hit in the U.S. 1986 bombing and is now a shrine to the 1986 "martyrs of imperial aggression", as a slap in the face to the U.S. by both the Libyans and French. Many were also scratching their heads over the November 24 state dinner, which the Libyans advertised as a double bill in honor of both Chirac and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who was also in town, but which only Chirac attended. The Irritations -------------- ¶3. (C) When we finally caught up with Dabdoush December 15, he confirmed that neither he nor his ambassador had been recalled, as some here had speculated, but instead had returned to France to recuperate from the stress of the visit. From the GOF's standpoint, the visit was a moderate success, Dabdoush said; Chirac can now say he's visited Libya, as so many of his European counterparts have done recently, and spent quality time with Qadhafi, as reported reftel. However, disorganization and constant Libyan "game-playing" with the schedule irritated Chirac and cast a pall over the visit. Notable irritations included: -- Qadhafi gave an interview to Le Figaro the day before Chirac's arrival, in which he criticized Libyan actions in Cote d'Ivoire, infuriating Chirac. -- On the morning of Chirac's arrival, Libyan Protocol invited diplomatic heads of mission to a state dinner in honor of both Chirac and Chavez. This was news to the Chirac's advance party, who passed it the President before his departure. Chirac categorically refused, stating that he would have a quiet dinner with the Ambassador "over a bottle of wine" in that case (note: alcohol is illegal in Libya). The Libyans disinvited Chavez, but Dabdoush told us that Chavez's security guards later got into a shoving match with some French ministers in the elevator of the Mehari Hotel, where the dinner took place. -- Chirac had no intention of visiting the 1986 bombed-out house, according to Dabdoush. The French advance team had agreed that the welcoming ceremony would take place in the Bab al-Azizia barracks so that Qadhafi would attend, but the ceremony was supposed to happen in another part of the barracks, Dabdoush asserted, showing us the initial site scenario diagrams to illustrate his point. Chirac felt ambushed, and made his displeasure felt by his icy demeanor during the ceremony and his subsequent refusal to put an inscription in the guest book, where other heads of state, mostly African, have gone on for pages about the injustice done to the Libyans in 1986. -- The Libyans ambushed Chirac again on November 24 by trying to get him to lay a wreath at a monument for victims of 1986; Chirac refused. What Was Accomplished -------------- ¶4. (C) Besides actually showing up, not much, according to Dabdoush; the five cooperation agreements signed during the visit were merely window dressing, and no significant business contracts were concluded. Although Qadhafi made his now-standard plea for military sales, the GOF will respond with caution, Dabdoush predicted; while the EU arms embargo has been lifted, certain sales are still tightly controlled under the so-called "toolbox" arrangement. France will stick to these prohibitions. Notably, the subject of Abdullah Sanoussi did not come up; Dabdoush said that the Libyans "know better now" than to press for clemency, which he believes Chirac is not inclined to give in any case. (Note: Sanousi was convicted to life in prison in abstentia for the UTA bombing; the French were enraged when Qadhafi rehabilitated him, after years spent under house arrest, and made him chief of military intelligence.) Dabdoush thought the Libyans have done a "fair" job in keeping Sanoussi out of the public eye, as they have requested. Chirac and Qadhafi -------------- ¶5. (C) Chirac and Qadhafi do not enjoy warm relations, Dabdoush said. They first met in 1976; to Dabdoush's knowledge, the last time they saw each other was during the Five Plus Five Meeting in 2003 in Tunis, when Chirac was irritated (again) after Qadhafi fell asleep during Chirac's speech. Comment -------------- ¶6. (C) Chirac's visit brought to mind, as so often here, a phrase that has become almost a technical term in the diplomatic corp: Libya's unmatched "wackiness factor." The Canadians are awaiting PM Martin's visit with some trepidation, especially after Saif al-Islam demanded an apology for Canada's participation in international sanctions on Libya in the 1980s and '90s. END comment. BERRY NNNN O 161036Z DEC 04 FM USLO TRIPOLI TO AMEMBASSY PARIS IMMEDIATE SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0037 INFO AMEMBASSY ALGIERS IMMEDIATE AMEMBASSY CAIRO IMMEDIATE AMEMBASSY CARACAS IMMEDIATE EU MEMBER STATES AMEMBASSY RABAT IMMEDIATE USLO TRIPOLI AMEMBASSY TUNIS IMMEDIATE