LIBYA PROTEST'S ISRAEL'S STRIKES ON GAZA, CALLS FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L TRIPOLI 000984

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/29/2018
TAGS: PREL PGOV KPAL UN IS LY
SUBJECT: LIBYA PROTEST'S ISRAEL'S STRIKES ON GAZA, CALLS FOR
"MEANINGFUL" UNSC ACTION

CLASSIFIED BY: Gene A. Cretz, Ambassador, U.S. Embassy -
Tripoli, U.S. Dept of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)

1. (C) MFA Secretary for European Affairs and senior regime
figure Abdulati Obeidi convoked P-5 chiefs of mission on
December 28 to denounce Israel's airstrikes against the Gaza
Strip.
The meeting was filmed and televised by the state-owned
Jamahiriya News Agency (JANA). Describing strikes by the
region's most powerful military force against Palestinians in
Gaza as "unjust and disproportionate", Obeidi claimed the
attacks were a "political and electoral gambit" whose timing was
at least partly dictated in part by Israel's upcoming elections
and domestic political concerns. Israel said its strikes were
intended to deter further rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip;
however, the disparity between the "anxiety" prompted by Hamas'
rocket attacks and the mass casualties caused by the IDF strikes
suggested that Israel's real goal was to fundamentally alter
facts on the ground in Gaza. The ongoing strikes in Gaza were
of a piece with Israel's historic policy of "exterminating"
senior Hamas leaders as a means by which to destabilize the
situation in the West Bank and Gaza. Dutifully noting that the
parties and international actors should fully consider a
one-state endgame in line with the "Isratine" concept
articulated by Muammar al-Qadhafi, Obeidi contrasted the
"unfairness" of international intervention in Iraq, Sudan and
elsewhere and the international community's reluctance to
sanction Israel.


2. (C) Libya and Arab League states with whom it has been in
touch believe the "correct address for action"is the UNSC.
Libya wants a "balanced and binding" resolution that would: 1)
call for an immediate end to rocket attacks; 2) an immediate
cessation of Israeli military operations in and around Gaza,
and: 3) an immedate lifting of the blockade against Gaza to
permit the flow of humanitarian assistance. (Note: Arab
ambassadors were also summoned on December 28 by MFA Secretary
for Arab Affairs Muhammad Siala to hear Libya's views on a
putative UNSCR. End note.) In something of a departure from
typical Libyan positions on Arab-Israeli questions, Obeidi
acknowledged that the IDF strikes had been a response to the
rocket attacks from Gaza. He candidly conceded that there were
intra-Palestinian disagreements that only the Palestinians
themselves could resolve, and said other Arab actors had not
previously been as positive or pro-active as they could or
should have been.

3) Responding to the French Ambassador's question as to whether
Libya might support a UNSC Presidential Statement in lieu of a
UNSCR, Obeidi stressed Libya's strong preference for "meaningful
action" in the form of a binding resolution, but was careful not
to rule out the possibility of a Presidential Statement.
Underscoring the Arabs' position and dismissing previous UNSCRs,
the Annapolis process and the Arab Initiative as "timid and
ineffectual", he stressed that Libya "does not want just empty
words and wishful thinking".


4. (C) Comment: The consensus view among the P-5 COM's was that
Libya's position was more balanced than had been expected, and
that while Libya was keen to achieve a binding resolution, it
was ready to talk and perhaps consider a UNSC Presidential
Statement or other alternatives to a UNSCR. End comment.

CRETZ