Middle East Expert Zayd al-Isa commented on the ongoing crisis in the North African country in an interview with Press TV. The following is a rush transcript of the interview.
Press TV: Libyan revolutionary forces say the regime troops used Israeli weapons in their attacks in Misurata. Now the question is: why are the regime forces in possession of Israeli-made arms?
Al-Isa: Well, it is not a secret that Gaddafi had a major change of heart in 2003. He completely changed his policies upside down. He truly imitates and copies what Saddam Hussein did. So he tried to show the rest of the world that he had learned the lessons the hard way. He simply gave up all his ambitions of acquiring weapons of mass destruction and forged a deal with the West, and handed over all the technology they claimed he had acquired to form those weapons of mass destruction and in return, they normalized the relations and they canceled the embargo which was imposed on Gaddafi — the dictator for a long time.
We also saw the relations dramatically improved with visits by Tony Blair and other Western politicians. Strong ties and very close relationships were also formed with the Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi. There are tremendous deals of alliance between them. So Gaddafi had a complete change of heart as I said, and he had established relations with the West. And even his best forces, which are the elite forces under the supervision and direction of Khamis — one of his loyal sons, have been provided with the most advanced weapons and training by the Americans themselves.
So it is not a surprise that he has brought those weapons from the Israelis or got them through a third party. I do not think he mind it at all. But the main thing that the previous days have shown is that even with the military airstrikes by the coalition, his forces first managed to hold the protesters — or let us say the revolutionary forces — for eleven days, and then his forces simply retreated all the way down to Sirte, where the protester forces managed to pursue them. There was absolutely no resistance, and they managed to capture all those cities. And out of the blue, Gaddafi’s forces mounted a huge military counter-attack which managed to push back the rebel forces all the way back to Ajdabiya.
Now this has basically given a strong indication of the seesawing military fortunes of the rebels, and it has exposed that they have no organized military structure, and they do not have any cohesive offensive or defensive strategy. The only strategy they have is to basically use their pickups to charge along the coast road through the cities. Now what the coalition forces have done for them is they have managed to chop the legs of the supply chain of Gaddafi forces, but the coalition forces are facing a serious problem, because the rebel forces have basically no military strategy at all. They are disorganized. They lack the discipline. And they even lack the experience to launch any sustained challenge against Gaddafi forces.
That is why the coalition forces have started talking about arming them, and we see [US President] Obama and [British Prime Minister] Cameron trying to stretch the language of the 1973 resolution — which is a United Nations resolution — by saying that this resolution overrides any previous resolutions by enforcing an arms embargo on Libya. We are having reports of Obama signing a secret government order, which authorizes the use of [Central Intelligence Agency] CIA help in order to train the rebel forces. We also hear reports of the British Special Forces being on the ground.
Press TV: Do you agree with the idea that there is a money trail in all that is taking place in Libya? And with reports indicating that the US warplanes are expected to halt combat this weekend, do you still sense the American ownership of the operations?
Al-Isa: To start off, I have to say that the Libyan people have been encouraged and inspired and, actually, emboldened by the revolutions which took place in the countries surrounding them — especially Tunisia, where all the popular uprisings actually started; where they were initiated. The political earthquake which took place in Egypt has rattled all the dictatorships around in the region. One of the major consequences of that political earthquake is what happened in Libya. I do believe that, in the beginning, people were proud of the protest, because they had ownership of the popular uprising. They initiated it. They started it. And they had a belief in themselves that they could lead this popular uprising to topple Gaddafi. They were very close to victory.
But now Gaddafi is using the rhetoric which is coming out from the international council to tell the people of Libya that “Look! I told you all along that these people are not nationalistic or patriotic; and that they are heavily relying on the West.” I do sympathize with the rebels. They had no option, because they were cornered and Gaddafi used massive use of force against them. They had to pick up arms to resist. This was the plan of Gaddafi to corner the protesters so that the youth come out fighting. I do believe that now with the coalition airstrikes that are going on, Gaddafi is trying to convince the people, particularly in the areas where he has the overwhelming power, that the protesters are Western-inspired, and not patriotic. Some high-ranking officials of the international council do not feel comfortable at all because they believe that this will alienate a lot of the people who started the uprising in the beginning.
Press TV: With regard to the civilian casualties as a result of the coalition airstrikes, who do you think will take responsibility for these deaths?
Al-Isa: There is quite clear evidence, and it is documented that the Americans had a major change of heart about voting for the no-fly zone after dragging their feet and opposing it for some time. It only came three days after the Saudis invaded Bahrain, and it came only one day after the Yemeni dictator — who is very close to the Saudis — also used force against his own people. The major change of heart for the Americans came a day after the massacres and atrocities committed by the Saudi forces in Bahrain, and after the Yemeni dictator simply listened and followed the instructions coming to him from Saudi Arabia to launch massive attacks on his own people to provide the cover to the Saudi dictatorship and to turn the attention of the public and the media and the world off the genocidal massacre, and the crimes committed by the Saudi forces against the Bahraini people. We must not forget that the Saudi forces could never have invaded Bahrain without the full consent and the backing of the United States.
HSN/PKH