German Libya policy an embarrassment

The German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle is under attack for attributing the victory of the Libyan rebels to the sanctions imposed by Germany and other nations, instead of the no-fly zone imposed by Nato without German participation. The conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung asks sarcastically which sanctions Westerwelle had in mind: "Representatives of the regime weren't banned from travelling, and neither bank accounts nor payments for energy deliveries were frozen. In fact the only sanction was the UN weapons embargo. Like Paris, Rome and London, Berlin had been arming Gaddafi for years. That was now out of the question. Losing out on these profits may seem like a heroic gesture to Westerwelle. However even the weapons embargo could only be implemented because Nato warships were patrolling the Mediterranean. And Germany had removed its ships from this flotilla. ... Westerwelle is proposing that Germany could help with the country's economic recovery. 'That's something we know a lot about.' True: German oil companies were already turning a good profit under Gaddafi. ... It always makes a good impression when a member refuses to share the costs of a military mission but isn't above pocketing profits from the peace."

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