Posted on 07/25/2008 10:13:41 AM PDT by WesternCulture
Libya's state shipping company says it has halted oil shipments to Switzerland in protest at the brief arrest of leader Muammar Gaddafi's youngest son.
It threatened further action if the Swiss did not apologise for the arrest.
Geneva police held Hannibal Gaddafi for two days after he and his pregnant wife allegedly hit two of their staff.
The couple face charges of bodily harm, threatening behaviour and coercion. They have denied any wrongdoing over the alleged incident on 15 July.
COSTLY ROW?
The stopping of oil shipments comes a day after the Swiss foreign ministry complained of Libya taking "retaliatory measures", such as forcing Swiss firms to close Libyan offices.
Libya's General National Maritime Transport Company - which has links to Hannibal Gaddafi - said in a statement that it had halted all oil shipments to Switzerland.
The firm handles most of Libya's oil exports. However, the AFP news agency reported that oil carried by commercial vessels would not be affected.
In a joint statement with the national port authority, the company also said ships sailing under the Swiss flag had been banned from entering Libyan ports.
It is a row that could prove costly to both countries, says the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva.
Switzerland imports at least half its crude oil from Libya but Libya owns a large oil refinery in Switzerland.
Libya's influential people's committees have also called for Libya to withdraw its deposits from Swiss banks if an apology for the arrest is not forthcoming.
'WORRYING MEASURES'
The Swiss foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Libya had "taken a number of worrying retaliatory measures" for Mr Gaddafi's arrest since he was released on bail on 17 July.
It said Swiss companies ABB and Nestle had been ordered to close their Libya offices and that Swiss staff there had been arrested.
Flights between Libya and Switzerland had been reduced, Libya had stopped issuing visas to Swiss citizens and Tripoli had recalled some of its diplomats from Bern, the Swiss foreign ministry said.
The ministry also said it had sent a delegation to Libya to explain Mr Gaddafi's arrest. It has advised Swiss citizens not to travel to Libya until further notice.
It is not Hannibal Gaddafi's first brush with the law. In 2005 he was convicted by a court in France of assaulting his girlfriend.
means a spike in crude.
Protesters demonstrate outside the Swiss embassy in Tripoli:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7524547.stm
(Feels like watching something I’ve seen at least 100 000 times before in my life..)
Well... that’s nice. Cut off the oil because your son is an idiot. Guess the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree, huh?
Where’s Reagan when you need him...
Hey Muammar, think for a minute. Remember… 1986? Tripoli / tent / desert / bombs / VERY loud booms in the middle of the night?
And we’ve allowed more and more of our energy needs to become dependent of people of this mentality.
Will we finally treat energy as a matter of national security, or will any significant price drop cause us to forget that again as price drops did in the early 1980s?
Those guys are nuts! You don’t mess with a country that has an army like Switzerland. Has he *seen* the knives those guys carry?!
:-D
“All people must be Muslims”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNUqLztI4mQ
One might claim this is nothing but sheer propaganda, primarily directed towards uneducated/fanatical Islamists in the poorest parts of Libya who constitute a potential threat to the Gaddafi regime, but even if this is the main reason for the manifestation as such, it ALSO is a matter of insane words coming from a megalomaniac in a position of power reminiscent of Saddam's before that particular ex-ruler of Iraq was dethroned.
LOL!
You remember the one that killed your baby daughter.
The Swiss should take the little bastard and behead him if the oil shipments are held up...
It’s the Muslim way!
“The Swiss should take the little bastard and behead him if the oil shipments are held up...”
- and furthermore deny the upper class of Libya advanced medical treatment by Swiss docs including those performing dental surgery - although this might cause financial harm to some famed Swiss experts in these areas, as well as certain leading Swiss manufacturers of chocolate bars.
In the end though, it’ll hurt even more in the Libyan toth sockets than in the Swiss pockets.
Correction:
- “tooth sockets” I belive it’s spelled, not “toth sockets”.
Sorry, I’m having a bad toth day..
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