North Africa LibyaBlog Analysis

Summer Series – Hillary's Mails. Libya 2011, When the French and the British thought about the country's split

Two pilots are heading towards the Mirage 2000Ds on the Solenzara base - Operation Harmattan (credit: DICOD / EMA - B2 archives).
Two pilots are heading towards the Mirage 2000Ds on the Solenzara base - Operation Harmattan (credit: DICOD / EMA - B2 archives).

(BRUSSELS2) The emails of former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - published by the US State Department - are a veritable goldmine for anyone investigating modern geopolitics. It's the summer series of B2...

Over the period of the crisis in Libya in 2011, these electronic exchanges reveal (or rather confirm) that the division of Libya into two distinct entities was not only envisaged but potentially desired by certain key actors in the conflict, in particular French and British, and even Egyptians.

Divide and rule ?

We are on April 8, 2011 — the operation of the allies, especially the French and the British, has been under way for barely a month and seems to be bogged down (read:  A month after the start of the Libyan campaign, what assessment? Why is it dragging?). A senior official from Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) warns Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “French, English and other European countries would be fully satisfied with a stalemate situation that would leave Libya divided into two rival entities”. Mistrust seems to be in order in the ranks of the CNT. A senior military official thus informs the American services of his doubts, "neither the French nor the British are providing enough aid to counter Gaddafi's forces". Suspicious, the leaders of the opposition envisage even at this time "to hire private firms to provide combat training and to organize their forces".

The frustration of Nicolas Sarkozy

From the start of the armed intervention (Operation Harmattan for the French, Ellamy for the British), a European source informed the Americans that "the French military command anticipates the total collapse of the Libyan military structure for the following week". But from March 2011, it becomes very difficult to obtain information from the field. What according to American information had the gift of annoying the former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, more and more " frustrated by this situation. A well-informed source points out that the French President “exert pressure so that France emerges from this crisis as the main external ally, whatever government takes power” in Libya (NB: on March 18, Sarkozy was one of the first to publicly recognize the CNT as the legitimate authority).

British phlegm

More pragmatic, the British do not base their objectives on an alleged prestige that would result from the " protection of civilian populations ". This is only a means for the defense of the interests of the Kingdom in Libya.

Informed by senior military officials of the National Transitional Council of Libya, Hilary Clinton learns in March 2011 the state of the negotiations of the Franco-British intelligence services. In the field, "despite the NATO intervention against Gaddafi's forces, the British government is using its intelligence services to dictate the behavior of both the TNC and Gaddafi" say senior officers of the CNT. 

The British negotiations with Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi highlight the planning of future relations if the latter succeeds his father at the end of the conflict which set the country ablaze in 2011. These same sources inform the Americans that "diplomatic and intelligence services maintain contact with members of Gaddafi's government". The flight to the United Kingdom of the Libyan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Moussa Koussa is no coincidence...

(Johanna Bouquet)

B2 Writing

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