Posted on 05/06/2004 8:52:42 AM PDT by yonif
Israeli chess officials demanded Thursday that this summer's world chess championships be moved, after host Libya said it would bar Israeli players.
Libya's announcement ended expectations that the chess tournament could help improve relations between the longtime Mideast enemies.
"We did not and will not invite the Zionist enemy to this championship," Mohammed Gadhafi, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, told a news conference Wednesday.
In response, the Israeli Chess Association demanded that the World Chess Federation, known as FIDE, move the championship from Libya, said spokesman Yerach Tal.
"We demand that it be held in a country that will accept every nation without discrimination," Tal said. "After he [Gadhafi] used those terms, calling us the Zionist enemy, it is another game entirely."
Tal noted that in Europe, Israel is ranked second in chess after Russia.
Mohammed Gadhafi, who also heads the Libyan Olympic Committee, wrote in a letter to FIDE last week that Libya "will pleasantly provide entry visas to all the qualified participants of this great championship."
Both Israel and FIDE took this to mean that Israeli players were also welcome, prompting FIDE to declare that the championship would be held entirely in Libya, and not split- with some games in nearby Malta - as originally planned.
The World Chess Championships are to be held in Tripoli from June 18 to July 13. Libya is putting up $1.5 million in prize money for the event.
On Wednesday, Mohammed Gadhafi said Libya was prepared to risk losing the championships to keep the Israelis out.
A FIDE official in Athens, Greece, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he did not know about Libya's change of mind. FIDE officials were not immediately available for comment Thursday.
Libya has been one of Israel's harshest critics in the Arab world, hosting military bases for radical Palestinian groups. In the mid-1990s, Libya expelled thousands of Palestinians in protest after Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat entered peace talks with Israel.
But in recent years, the Libyan leader toned down his anti-Israel rhetoric as part of a larger effort to rehabilitate his international image.
But in recent years, the Libyan leader toned down his anti-Israel rhetoric as part of a larger effort to rehabilitate his international image.
Right out of Arafat's playbook. And he gets money in return. International sanctions and US sanctions were lifted. What a joke.
And the Libyan terrorists are probably scared of losing to the Jews.
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