France and the secret of the first shot against Gaddafi!

On March 19, 2011, France rushed to military intervention in Libya under the cover of Security Council Resolution 1970 and sent 20 warplanes of various types to carry out combat operations in the east of the country as part of the NATO campaign.

Security Council Resolution No. 1970 was issued on February 26, 2011 against the backdrop of the unrest that took place in Libya, especially in the city of Benghazi, in the so-called Arab Spring that struck Tunisia, then Egypt and Libya.

This resolution allowed “all member states to take all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian populated areas at risk of attacks in Libya, including Benghazi.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the time took advantage of the opportunity of his country's return to NATO's military leadership in 2009, and charted a new path for the future away from the independent Gaullist approach that rejected American hegemony. He believed that Libya would be a great gateway to French interests.

This was revealed after the publication of the correspondence of former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2015 against the backdrop of investigations into the assassination of the US ambassador in Benghazi in 2012.

One of those secret correspondences, which Clinton exchanged via a private email registered in her name before she took office, says that Sarkozy “plans to have France lead the attacks on Gaddafi over a long period of time... and sees in this situation an opportunity for France to reassert itself as a military power.”

The no-fly operation in Libya, or what the United States called “Odyssey Dawn” and France “Harmattan,” began hastily, and as some reports say, “before the ink with which the Security Council resolution was written was almost dry,” with a raid carried out by a French Mirage plane that targeted a “suspicious” car. .

After the French air strikes, British and American aircraft launched intensive bombing operations in Libya, and American ships and submarines fired 114 Tomahawk missiles at Libyan air defense systems, while the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, Admiral Michael Mullen, claimed that the objectives of the NATO campaign in Libya were limited and not One of its priorities is to overthrow Gaddafi.

In its military intervention in Libya, France used Rafale bombers, Mirage 2000 fighters, refueling planes, and reconnaissance planes equipped with long-range detection radars. Its first operations were focused around the city of Benghazi, located in eastern Libya, and the government forces at that time were at the gates of the city to retake it after the opponents took control of it. The French Air Force destroyed the attacking convoy's vehicles, and Paris believed that it had secured priority in this country.

Paris, under the leadership of Sarkozy, used its intelligence and spies to achieve its project in Libya, as is evident from Clinton’s correspondence, where a document dated March 22, 2011 stated that officers from the General Directorate of External Security, “French intelligence,” held a series of meetings with leading figures in the uprising in Benghazi and provided them with support. Morally and financially to form a council, they promised, through then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, that Paris would recognize it as a new government as soon as it was announced.

On the other hand, according to the same memo, French foreign intelligence officials explained that they expected the new Libyan government to give “preference to French companies and national interests, especially with regard to the oil industry in Libya.”

Another memorandum, dated May 5, 2011, quoted those close to the National Transitional Council in Libya that senior managers from the French company Total, the large construction company Vinci, and the European aviation and defense company had made “humanitarian” trips to Benghazi, and that representatives of other large French companies were in a relationship. Sarkozy's document later took them on road trips there, organized under the escort of armed officers from French foreign intelligence.

Clinton's correspondence also revealed in a document dated September 2011, a month before the killing of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and the end of NATO operations in this country, that Sarkozy informed the Libyans with specific numbers about what he expected from Libya, indicating the necessity of transferring 35 percent of the local oil industry to major French companies. .

 This correspondence also stated that French intelligence discovered at the end of March 2011 a plan by Gaddafi to transfer 143 tons of gold to Sabha in the southwest of the country, which is estimated at more than 7 billion dollars. This amount of gold, according to the correspondence, was intended to issue an African currency based on the Libyan gold dinar, and this matter “was one of the factors that influenced President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to attack Libya.”

In the end, Gaddafi was killed in the manner documented by mobile phone cameras on October 20, 2011, and the era of 42 years of his rule ended, while Libya entered into complete chaos and division from which it is still trying in vain to emerge until now.

France's dreams in Libya also did not come true. The country's capabilities were destroyed and its stability was destabilized, and Libyan oil remained out of the reach of Paris. What is striking is that France's tendentious intentions regarding its military intervention in Libya and its intense enthusiasm to overthrow Gaddafi passed peacefully amidst the noise of cheers for getting rid of Gaddafi and his regime, which was hostile to the West.