On
Libya,
France Says
Oil Question
"Makes No
Sense," It'll
Pay Market
Price
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 16
-- When
Nicolas
Sarkozy of
France and the
UK's
David Cameron
visited
Tripoli this
week, Cameron
said his
country
would help
"hunt down"
Gaddafi.
Meanwhile
Sarkozy's
foreign
minister Alain
Juppe has said
it would be
only "natural"
if
French
companies
ending up
getting 35% of
oil contracts
with the
National
Transitional
Council, since
France
supported
them.
Inner
City Press
on Friday
asked French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
about this 35%
of oil
figure. Araud
responded that
the question
"doesn't make
sense."
He said that
"the Libya of
Gaddafi also
sold oil to
Western
companies" and
that the new
national
government
"will sell
at the market
price."
But
the idea is
that French
companies like
Total will get
contracts,
including
exploration
contracts.
Dirk
Vandewalle,
the adviser to
the UN's
adviser Ian
Martin, has
noted that
"international
oil and gas
companies
continue to
rank the
Jamahiriyya as
the top
exploration
spot anywhere
in the
world... due
to the fact
that
three-quarters
of
the country's
territory
remained
unexplored."
Inner
City Press
asked Araud,
what about
French
companies?
Araud replied
that they
too would pay
the market
price and that
anyway this
was
"premature...
we are in the
middle of the
fighting."
On
that, Inner
City Press
asked how NATO
now bombing
Sirte and Bani
Walid could be
construed as
protecting
civilians.
Araud merely
said, NATO is
protecting
civilians.
Araud &
Emmanuel Bonne
w/ Libya's
Treki, more to
follow
UK
Ambassador
Mark
Lyall Grant,
when asked the
same question
by Inner City
Press, was
more nuanced,
noting that
NATOs mandate
will continue
to be reviewed
and might be
ended, in
consultation
with the
Libyan
authorities.
The
newly
(re)
accredited
Libyan
representative
at the UN
Ibrahim
Dabbashi had
been
waiting to
speak to the
assembly press
at the
stakeout but
previous
speakers too
too long and
Dabbashi left
to talk with a
single
channel.
Inner
City Press
asked Lyall
Grant to
explain what
David Cameron
meant by
helping to
"hunt down"
Gaddafi. "I'm
not going to
comment,"
Lyall Grant
said, on
something said
by the Prime
Minister. What
about
Prime
Minister's
questions?
Watch this
site.
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