So which countries now officially recognize the Libyan rebels?

Posted By Robert Zeliger Monday, June 13, 2011 - 4:15 PM Share

Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle announced today during a visit to Benghazi that his government would now recognize the Transitional National Council (TNC) as the official representatives of the Libyan people. Here's a breakdown of which major countries have officially recognized the Benghazi-based leadership and which countries haven't.

RECOGNIZED BY:

France was one of the first countries to recognize the rebels on March 10, some nine days before the NATO intervention began. Qaddafi broke off diplomatic relations with Paris the next day.

Qatar was the first Arab country to back the rebels, establishing diplomatic ties on March 28. Kuwait followed in April, Jordan in May, and the United Arab Emirates last week.

Despite a long-standing friendship between Qaddafi and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Italy backed the rebels as the "only legitimate interlocutor" in April.

In mid-May, Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague recognized the TNC and invited them to open a mission in London.  Spain and Australia soon followed.

NOT RECOGNIZED BY:

The United States.  Despite playing a leading role in the airstrikes against Qaddafi and his loyalist forces, Washington hasn't officially recognized the Transitional Council.  White House spokesman Jay Carney said last month the U.S. is "continuing to assess the capabilities of the TNC," but it was up to the Libyan people to decide their government, not foreign states.  

Regional power house Turkey has not completely renounced Qaddafi, despite lobbying efforts by Libyan rebel leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil, who visited Ankara late last month.

Russia and China. Both countries abstained in the Security Council vote authorizing a no-fly zone in Libya and have yet to cut off ties with Qaddafi. A Russian envoy might meet with him again this week in Tripoli.

Neighbor Egypt is allowing aid and medical material to cross its western border to resupply and aid the Libyan rebels, but it hasn't yet renounced Qaddafi's government. In fact, Jalil has alleged  that Qaddafi's associates are in Egypt, selling Libyan assets to get around international sanctions and recruiting mercenaries,  charges that Cairo denies.

EXPLORE:NORTH AFRICA, LIBYA
 

NIKOS_RETSOS

7:27 AM ET

June 14, 2011

So which countries now officially recognize the Libyan rebels?

First, the TNC "recognition" by a few powers is not a "diplomatic" one. It is a technical acknowledgement by a few powers that they are committing themselves to accept the TNC as an alternative authority to the officially recognized government of Libya - until the civil strife is over.

The recognition of Transitional National Council (TNC), therefore, has only a psychological value at this juncture. Let's not forget that the TNC is still an amorphous civil body without any real state power, without an army or a constitution, and it controls only the Eastern 1/4 of Libya. But since the Western powers have decided to dispose of Muammar Gadhafi, the TNC is just the default civil body filling a vacuum until the sovereignty of the whole Libyan territory is settled. And when this is done, the tribal chiefs in Libya may settle on other personalities than on the former Gadhafi associates that have now floated as democrats at the top of the TNC!

I expect to see both an "evolution" and a "devolution" in the TNC when the current civil strife in Libya settles down. There is no doubt that the Western powers would try to push pro-Western figures at the top of the TNC, but Libyan tribal chiefs would certainly not like to have another Hosni Mubarak or Abdullah Saleh control them for the next 30 years while the West suck their oil fields dry! Muamam Gadhafi is still holding on because he has cultivated the widespread suspicion among the Libyans that the Western powers don't really care about democracy, but about oil! And the way the U.S. reacted to the Bahrain uprising, and to the Libyan uprising has confirmed those suspicions.

And those suspicions - in the end- may doom some members of the current and very fluid TNC leadership. That is why I feel that the present "provisional" recognition of the TNC by a few countries is more a slap on Gadhafi's face - rather than a "full diplomatic recognition" of the TNC as a sovereign entity or a sovereign state! Nikos Retsos, retired professor

 

JOSEPH ZRNCHIK

7:45 PM ET

June 16, 2011

Propaganda and Information Warfare Directed Against Americans

This Gaddafi/Viagra nonsense is nothing but propaganda and information warfare directed against the American people to get them to go for ANOTHER illegal war. It also shows that the ICC is a tool of Western powers.

Notice the rebels are in the part of the country that contains all the oil.

NATO Making Libya a Failed State

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/707/207/NATO_Making_Libya_a_Failed_State.html

 

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