Libyan-Arab-African unification projects

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The efforts of the Libyan revolutionary leader Muammar al-Gaddafi to achieve African-Islamic or Arab unity through the merger of Libya with other states comprised twelve bilateral and trilateral unification projects with eight states in the first 25 years of his term in office (1969–1994). This intensive Libyan striving for unity was in the tradition of Nasserism , but was also shaped by Gaddafi's own reception of pan-Arab , pan-African and pan-Islamic or Islamic-socialist concepts.

2009: later success after 40 years of Gaddafi for a year as President of the African Union elected

prehistory

The Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser had already warned in 1965 against a too quick Arab unification without prior economic integration. After Egypt's defeat in the Six Day War in 1967, which meant a failure of his policy, Nasser also withdrew the Egyptian soldiers from the North Yemeni civil war ; Egypt did not initially start any more unification projects. Only afterwards did Libya appear as a pan-Arab actor and initiator of Arab unification projects.

On September 1, 1969, a group of young, pro-Egyptian officers led by Muammar al-Gaddafi carried out a coup in Libya and overthrew the monarchy. In May 1969 a military coup led by Jafar an-Numairi had brought a pro-Egyptian regime to power in Sudan. Gaddafi, who appeared as an ardent supporter of Nasser, immediately tried to win his idol for a unification of Libya and Sudan with Egypt. Nasser supported Libya with the restructuring of the education sector and administration with Egyptian advisors, but at the same time he is said to have made no secret of his disdain for Gaddafi and to have clearly distanced himself from him after the first meeting of the two.

initial situation

Partner of Libyan union plans: Several attempts were made to reach an agreement with some states (three times with Egypt and Sudan; twice with Syria; once each with Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Malta, Chad and Palestine)
comparison Libya Egypt Sudan Tunisia Chad
Population 1969 less than 2 million over 30 million almost 15 million almost 5 million almost 4 million
Population 1994 over 5 million over 60 million almost 30 million almost 10 million over 6 million

Objectively, some historical and economic aspects spoke in favor of a merger of Libya with its neighboring states. From the Arabization or Islamization of Libya in the 7th century to the Italian colonial period in the first half of the 20th century, the east of today's Libya (at least Barqa ) had more or less belonged to Egypt for many centuries, the west of Libya ( at least Tripolitania ), however, mostly to Tunisia. The state of Libya, which has only been independent since 1951, was and is a country with a labor shortage because of its small population, despite its oil wealth . Its economically poorer neighbors Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia and Chad, on the other hand, are states with a population or labor surplus . Libya's oil industry, which has been developing rapidly since 1959, increasingly required guest workers from neighboring countries. Gaddafi's extensive irrigation projects also seemed to provide living space for millions of additional residents, while the limited fertile areas on the Nile are gradually barely able to feed the growing population. The billions in profits gushing out of the oil business in turn promised to fill the gaps in the national budgets of Egypt and Sudan left by the wars against Israel and the South Sudanese rebels .

Pan-Arab and pan-Islamic striving for unity

In general, Gaddafi's claim to leadership, which rivals the ambitions of the respective union partners, and his alleged unpredictability are cited as the reason for the failure of all unification plans. However, specific political, economic and historical characteristics that differentiate the participating Arab-African states and their societies are also responsible for the respective failure.

Federation of Arab Republics and Union with Egypt (1970–1973)

Gaddafi between Nasser (left) and Atassi (right) in Tripoli at the end of 1969 - a year later Atassi fell and Nasser was dead

Gaddafi's first attempt at unification was also Nasser's last. Initially, however, the Egyptian president did not agree to more than one political alliance, a revolutionary Arab front with Libya and Sudan (Charter of Tripoli, December 1969). A trilateral federation agreement was only reached in April 1970, but in September 1970 Nasser suddenly died.

Gaddafi agreed the next step with Nasser's successor, Anwar al-Sadat . In early November 1970, Egypt, Libya and Sudan formed a United Political Leadership to prepare a Federation of Arab Republics . After the coup of Hafiz al-Assad , non-African Syria also joined in late November 1970, whereupon Sudan gradually withdrew. The federation was instead closed by Egypt, Libya and Syria in April 1971 and formally entered into force in January 1972. Within the federation, Gaddafi and Sadat even agreed in August 1972 to completely merge their states into one union by September 1973.

Gaddafi's and Sadat's motives and objectives were very different. Gaddafi saw himself as Nasser's ideological heir and wanted his successor Sadat to continue Nasser's policy, but initially Gaddafi was ready to subordinate himself to Sadat who was over 23 years older. Sadat, who was still overshadowed by Nasser's charisma, strove to consolidate his position through another war against Israel and the recapture of the territories lost under Nasser in 1967 ( Sinai , Gaza ). For this war, the Egyptian-Syrian military alliance was more important than the union with Libya, which did not represent any significant military reinforcement. Syria, too, was more interested in military support to recapture the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights than in full unification. In turn, Libya, which had not lost any territories, considered such a war a waste of resources and was busy conquering the Chadian Aouzou Strip .

Sadat tactfully delayed the realization of the Egyptian-Libyan union again and again. Frustrated by the stagnation of the unification process, Gaddafi tried in July 1973 to force the implementation of the union through a peaceful march of thousands of Libyans to Cairo, but Sadat stopped the demonstration on the Egyptian border, which in fact already failed. In October 1973, Egypt and Syria started the war without involving Libya in the preparations or even having consulted them. Nonetheless, immediately after the fighting broke out, Gaddafi sent around 40 Libyan Mirage fighter jets and billions of US dollars in support. He rejected the armistice with Israel that had been concluded as a result of the military stalemate following the Egyptian offensive and the Israeli counter-offensive and therefore stopped financial support for Egypt in March 1974. Sadat then provocatively brought the Libyan ex-king Idris, who had been overthrown by Gaddafi, to Cairo in April 1974 . The federation was effectively ended. Egyptian-Libyan relations deteriorated rapidly and finally led to a brief Egyptian-Libyan border war in July 1977 , but it was only after Sadat's trip to Jerusalem in November 1977 that Libya and Syria formally left the federation.

Union with Malta (1972)

One of the most unusual Libyan unification plans was the union with the island state of Malta, which lies between southern Europe and North Africa . The Libyan-Maltese Federal Republic , announced in 1972 by Gaddafi and Malta's socialist Prime Minister Dom Mintoff ( Malta Labor Party ), never came into being despite the payment of 1 billion US dollars to Malta.

Gaddafi and Mintoff nevertheless continued to emphasize Malta's Arabic roots. Maltese is an offshoot of Arabic , but Tripoli and Malta were last under common (Christian) rule in the 16th century. Despite later phases of resentment and Christian Democratic election victories, relations remained more or less friendly during Mintoff's long reign and also after Mintoff's departure in 1984, mainly because they are characterized by mutual dependence. Malta also has a surplus of labor, even during the period of Western sanctions, Maltese worked in Libyan oil fields and Libyan companies invested in Malta. Libya was warned by Malta about the US attack in 1986. (As a result, Gaddafi did not stay in his residence and so survived the US bomb attack.) Today, Malta is the EU member state with the best relations with Libya.

United States of North Africa (1973) and Arab Islamic Republic (1974)

Gaddafi's Arab-Islamic Republic (darker) and Bourguiba's United States of North Africa

As early as December 1972, Gaddafi had asked the pro-Western, social democratic President of Tunisia, Habib Bourguiba , to join his country to the Federation of Arab Republics , which Bourguiba had rejected at the time. However, in September 1973 Bourguiba had spoken out in favor of a later merger of Algeria, Tunisia and Libya ("United States of North Africa"). After the failure of the Federation or the Union of Libya with Egypt, the then 30-year-old Gaddafi and the already 70-year-old Bourguiba signed an agreement on January 12, 1974 in Djerba, Tunisia, on the formation of a joint Arab Islamic Republic , the Bourguiba had yet agreed. Although Bourguiba resigned from the agreement only three days later after resistance within his sole ruling Destur party by postponing the referendum scheduled for March 20, 1974 indefinitely on January 14, 1974, the referendum in Libya was held on January 18 Carried out in 1974. The foreign minister of Tunisia, Muhammad Masmudi , who was considered to be pan-Arab and had campaigned particularly for the conclusion of the unification agreement, was dismissed in January 1974. Libyan-Tunisian relations only improved somewhat in 1977 and deteriorated again in 1980 when Libya stirred up unrest in Tunisia.

Front of Steadfastness (1977-1980)

After Sadat's trip to Jerusalem in November 1977 finally broke up the Federation of Arab Republics , Gaddafi invited Syria and other progressive Arab regimes to form a front of steadfastness against the 1978 Egyptian-Israeli separate peace of Camp David . Another aspect of this front formation staged by Libya and Algeria was Gaddafi's efforts to obtain military protection from an Egyptian invasion. The brief Egyptian-Libyan border war of July 1977 had already revealed the hopeless inferiority of the small Libyan army compared to the ten times larger force in Egypt . Gaddafi hoped that the other "countries of steadfastness" would send troops to protect his regime if necessary and thus keep Libya back while it intervened in the Chad civil war . Finally, Gaddafi brought the non-Arab and non-Islamic ( communist ) regime of Ethiopia into the front.

Union with Syria (1980–1981)

Libya and Syria, the capitals Tripoli and Damascus are 2150 kilometers away

After the loss of its military ally Egypt, Syria initially looked for a replacement in Iraq , which had already signed a friendship treaty with the Soviet Union in 1972. Even under the pressure of the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon in April 1978, a Syrian-Iraqi reconciliation was temporarily achieved on October 26, 1978 and even a unification of the two Baathist states was decided, but this failed in July 1979. A first uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iraqi-Iranian war that began in July 1980 made the military situation in isolated Syria even worse. In hasty siding with Iran , Syria had "lent" numerous Syrian fighter jets to the Iranian Air Force (which had been cut off from supplies and spare parts from the USA) . The Soviet Union then suspended the delivery of further war material until the Syrian debts were settled.

So, for fear of a two-front war, Syria turned back to Libya. Gaddafi initially paid off Syrian debts to the Soviet Union amounting to 1 billion US dollars and on September 1, 1980, proposed to Assad that Libya and Syria should be merged into a single socialist state. Assad agreed to the unification proposal and a corresponding agreement was signed on September 10, which provided for an “organic union” or the amalgamation of the two states within a month.

The differences between Syria and Libya made a merger fundamentally difficult. In contrast to 1971, the establishment of the Libyan Jamahiriya was already advanced in 1980. Despite a common “socialist orientation”, this form of government was hardly compatible with the military-bureaucratic civil service state of Syria. At a Libyan-Syrian summit from December 15 to 17, 1980 in Benghazi , cuts were made to the schedule for unification, with the result that the project had effectively failed. Gaddafi and Assad only decided to set up a commission that should first draw up a common constitution.

Given the confrontation between Libya and the US fleet in the Gulf of Sirte in August 1981 told Assad although again its solidarity with Libya, and Gaddafi was negotiating in Syria is still on the Union, but the military was Libya in this conflict and the civil war in Chad as well just like Syria with the Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights in December 1981 or the uprising of the Muslim Brothers in Hama and the 1982 Lebanon War . Nevertheless, the Libyan-Syrian Supreme Political Committee met for a (last) joint meeting on May 20, 1985, but at that time Libya was already part of another union (Arab-African Federation with Morocco). Since then, Syria has not participated in any other unification projects. In contrast to most other union projects with Libya's neighboring states, the failure of the Libyan-Syrian project did not lead to a deterioration in relations between Libya and Syria - not even during the Kuwait War of 1990/91, when Syria joined the anti-Iraq coalition, but Libya did took a pro-Iraqi stance.

United Sahel States and Union with Chad (1981–1984)

Libya and the Sahel states of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Sudan
comparison Libya Burkina Faso Mali Niger Sudan Chad
Proportion of Muslims 96-100% 50-60% 80-90% 80-95% about 70% 50-55%

After the temporary failure of the pan-Arab unification plans, Gaddafi initially devoted himself to the pan-Islamic mission in the neighboring African Sahel states , thus at least indirectly following a mission that had been started by Libyan Senussi in the 19th century . He concentrated on the southern neighboring country of Chad, whose very sparsely populated northern regions had been dominated by the Senussi before French colonial rule (1899 / 1907-1960). However, Gaddafi's mission has been made more difficult since his condemnation by the Islamic World League (1983).

In the shadow of the Chadian civil war , Libya annexed the Aouzou Strip in 1973 and in 1979 supported the FROLINAT rebels, who were fighting against the government in N'Djamena , around Goukouni Oueddei from northern Chad . To this end, Gaddafi created the “ Islamic Legion ” in 1974 - a kind of foreign legion of Muslim revolutionaries and non-Muslim mercenaries, mainly from West Africa, trained, equipped and financed by Libya .

Areas controlled by Libya and allies during the Chad Civil War

With the help of Libyan troops, Oueddei took power in N'Djamena in 1980 as president of a transitional government (GUNT). The union with Libya announced in 1981 but isolated Oueddei, after the withdrawal of the Libyans he was overthrown with French help by Defense Minister Hissène Habré and expelled north in 1982 . Another Libyan invasion in favor of Oueddeis was stopped in 1983 and 1984 by direct French and Zairean intervention ("Operation Manta"). To the north of the "red line" established by France (first at the 15th and then from 1984 then at the 16th latitude) Oueddeis GUNT was able to assert itself in Faya-Largeau and the entire Borkou-Tibesti region and an allied or dependent on Libya Establish regime. The Libyans established an air force base in Ouadi Doum in northern Chad, and the GUNT counter-government resided in Bardai. In 1986 internal GUNT struggles, Gaddafi promoted the Arab- born Acheikh ibn Oumar against the unsuccessful Oueddei, while Oueddei first reconciled with Habré, but then again with Gaddafi and Ibn Oumar. Chadian troops immediately intervened in the fighting and, with French help, expelled the Libyans from all of the north of the country by 1987 ("Operation Epervier" 1986, "Toyota wars" 1987). After a Libyan counter-offensive, Gaddafi was initially able to maintain the Aouzou strip alone. In 1988 Ibn Oumar also allied with Habré, so that in 1989 Libya was forced to leave the decision on the Aouzou strip to the International Court of Justice .

Similar to Nasser's intervention in the North Yemeni civil war (1962–1967), Gaddafi's Chad adventure in Libya had overwhelmed it and only resulted in losses: the small army was weakened, the war had cost billions of dollars and a great deal of international reputation.

Equally unsuccessful were Gaddafi's attempts to bring prolibian regimes to power in Niger , Mali or Sudan through coup attempts and the support of rebel groups, which then in turn merged with Libya into the "United States of the Sahel" or the "United States of North Africa" should join together. Mali and Niger's Tuareg rebels repeatedly offered Libya to Gaddafi as a retreat and even declared Libya their supposed original home. In Central Africa and Uganda, Libyan troops intervened in vain to support the Bokassa and Idi Amins regimes (later also in support of Patassé ). In Burkina Faso alone , Gaddafi's admirer Thomas Sankara established a regime allied with Libya in 1983, which Gaddafi proudly described as "the second Jamahiriya in the world". With the assassination of Sankara in 1987 by pro-Western putschists, this alliance also ended.

Arab-African Federation (1984–1986)

Morocco and Libya, the capitals Rabat and Tripoli are 1700 kilometers away

The idea of ​​uniting Morocco and Libya in one union came from King Hassan II rather than from Gaddafi. At first this was all the more surprising because Libya had supported two republican coup attempts in Morocco in 1971/72 and, since 1979, the Frente Polisario , which was fighting against Morocco .

In the region, both states were more or less isolated around 1984 - Morocco because of the Western Sahara conflict , Libya because of the increasing confrontation with the US Mediterranean fleet in the Great Syrte and because of the Libyan support for rebels in Chad and South Sudan. In 1982 and 1983 Egypt and Sudan took certain steps towards integration and military cooperation, most of which were directed against Libya. In turn, POLISARIO's main sponsor, Algeria, had concluded an alliance with Tunisia and Mauritania in 1983 , which was mainly directed against Morocco but also excluded Libya. In 1984 Morocco was forced to withdraw from the Organization for African Unity , which had also sided with POLISARIO.

The Arab-African Federation (literally: Arab-African Union ) of Morocco and Libya, which was concluded on August 13, 1984 in Oujda, eastern Morocco, was confirmed by referendums in both countries with over 97% each. On July 7, 1985, a joint parliament with 60 Moroccan and 60 Libyan representatives was constituted in Rabat. But even a joint presidency council, a joint executive council, a joint general secretariat and a joint court of law did not in fact lead to any merging of the unequal partners. The prosperous, anti-western and socialist-oriented People's Republic gave the impoverished, conservative and pro-western monarchy economic aid, in return, Morocco brokered a standstill agreement between France and Libya that effectively divided Chad along the 16th parallel. Libya in turn stopped its support for the POLISARIO, but without withdrawing the recognition of the Sahara Republic . Three days before his fall in April 1985, the Sudanese military dictator, Jafar an-Numairi , claimed that Gaddafi had offered him US $ 5 billion to allow Sudan to join the Arab-African Federation.

The US policy of the Reagan administration , which is geared towards confrontation with Libya, could or would hardly influence Morocco. Because of the US embargo against Libya, the Federation's Joint Economic Committee met again in January 1986, but Morocco could not or would not avert the US attacks of March 1986 and April 1986 . Libya accused Morocco of allowing US bombers coming from Great Britain to fly over (unlike France, Italy or Spain, for example ). With this the federation had in fact failed; Libya began to reconcile with Morocco's opponent Algeria. The final break came when King Hassan received the then Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres on July 22, 1986 for (fruitless) talks in Morocco. During a visit by Syrian President Assad to Tripoli on August 24, 1986, Gaddafi condemned the Moroccan-Israeli meeting as a violation of the federation treaty. Thereupon Hassan resigned the Federation on August 28, 1986 by telegram.

Arab Union (1985) and integration with Sudan (1986)

With the fall of Numairis in April 1985, there had initially been a chance of improving or restoring relations with Sudan. On June 11, 1985, Gaddafi proposed transforming the Arab League into an Arab Union with joint legislative, executive and judicial organs. The models were the European Communities (which later became the European Union ) or the European Parliament , the European Commission , etc.

Libya and the Arab League

The proposal was submitted to the federation partner Morocco and Sudan on the same day, Syria on June 12 and Jordan on June 13. On June 23, 1985, Gaddafi declared that the Libyan proposal had already met with approval from Syria, Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni Arab Republic (Northern Yemen). On July 6, 1985, the federation partner Morocco also agreed. As a result, Libya created “Arab citizenship” for all citizens of brother Arab countries living in Libya, but from August 5, 1985 expelled those non-Libyan Arabs who did not want to take this citizenship (officially to prevent further foreign exchange outflows). By October 13, 1985, 100,000 citizens of Arab states, mainly Tunisia (30,000) and Egypt, but also the allied Syria, had been deported. Only guest workers from Morocco and Sudan were excluded from the expulsions.

After the termination of the federation with Morocco, Gaddafi again campaigned for his Arab union plan during a visit to Khartoum and on September 9, 1986 also proposed a bilateral union to the Sudanese Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi . Al-Mahdi pointed out, however, that after the long period of dictatorship, the internal unity of Sudan must first be achieved through a peace solution for South Sudan and the democratization of the entire country.

Union with Algeria (1987) and Union of the Arab Maghreb (1989)

Although there is no significant common history of Libya and Algeria, the objective similarities between the two neighboring states were greater than those of Libya with any other neighbors. Like Libya, Algeria also benefited from rich oil and, above all, natural gas reserves, and in contrast to Tunisia or Egypt, Algeria was as advanced in its “socialist orientation” as Libya. Like Libya, Algeria had started extensive irrigation and greening programs in the Sahara. But Algeria in 1987 was no longer as radically “revolutionary” as it was in 1977, when it formed the front of steadfastness with Libya or in 1967 when it supported Egypt with its air force and urged the continuation of the “people's war” against Israel. Algeria's President Houari Boumedienne died in 1978, his successor Chadli Bendjedid fought domestically against an economic crisis and a growing Islamism and in foreign affairs against Morocco's rule over Western Sahara. Libya had already made initial proposals for integration in 1975, 1981 and 1982. With the break-up of the Arab-African Union, Algerian-Libyan relations, which had in the meantime been troubled, improved again. Algeria had already declared its full solidarity with Libya after the US attacks in March 1986 and April 1986 .

Arab Maghreb Union (including the disputed Western Sahara)

Initiatives to unite the two states, however, came primarily from the Libyan side, less even from Gaddafi himself than from his brother-in-law and deputy, Abd al-Salam Jallud . In February 1986, when he visited Algeria, he had already spoken of a step towards unification, which Gaddafi repeated in March 1986. On another visit to Algeria in June 1986, Jallud described an Algerian-Libyan union as the “only weapon of survival”. At a meeting in Libya in December 1986, Gaddafi and Bendjedid discussed a possible union, and on June 14, 1987, Jallud held official talks in Algiers on integrating the two states. During Gaddafi's visit to Algiers on June 28, 1987, Bendjedid also spoke out in favor of an economic union, but expressed reservations about full political integration. The Central Committee of Algeria's sole ruling unity party FLN then withdrew its proposal for a union that had already been drawn up. The referendum on unity scheduled for November 1, 1988 was canceled.

Nevertheless, various agreements were made in 1986 and 1987 to standardize the transport and energy infrastructure, education and mass media, tourism, health care, a joint bank, joint companies, etc. Algerian-Libyan relations only deteriorated shortly after the resumption of diplomatic relations between Algeria and Egypt, which was sharply criticized by Libya on November 24, 1987. Algeria, however, invited Libya to join the Algerian-Tunisian-Mauritanian tripartite alliance in 1988, from which, after a temporary reconciliation with Morocco in 1989, the Union of the Arab Maghreb emerged . The Maghreb Union was never intended as a union state or a state union (as proposed by Libya), but rather as an economic and political alliance to defend against Islamism. Gaddafi's call to the Sahel states of Sudan, Chad, Niger and Mali to join the Union on May 21, 1989, called into question the Arab and regional character of the Union. The Union of the Arab Maghreb has remained ineffective to this day because of its unresolved internal problems and contradictions (e.g. the Western Sahara conflict ) and was declared a failure by Gaddafi in 2003.

Union with Palestine (1988)

After the Palestinian-Jordanian confederation talks between 1982 and 1985 were unsuccessful, King Hussein I of Jordan surprisingly announced in 1988 the end of all legal and administrative ties with the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967, in favor of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). He therefore dismissed the Palestinian officials in the occupied territories who had been paid by Jordan until then. Gaddafi immediately offered to take over the salaries of the officials and also suggested a future union of Palestine with Libya. The PLO refused. After tough negotiations with Hussein, an interim solution was reached, and Jordan continued to pay the officials temporarily. Finally, the PLO took over the salary and at the end of 1988 proclaimed the state of Palestine in Algerian exile , which was recognized by Libya, Jordan and over 100 other states (including the German Democratic Republic and the Vatican ).

Union with Sudan (1990–1994)

Libya and Sudan, the capitals Tripoli and Khartoum are 2740 kilometers away.

After Numeiri's fall, Sudan's Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi canceled the full integration agreed with Sadat's successor Hosni Mubarak in 1985 , but in 1986 he also rejected Gaddafi's advances. When Libya wanted to use the Islamic Legion from Sudan in the battle for Chad in 1987, Libyan-Sudanese relations deteriorated again. The fall of al-Mahdi by General Omar al-Bashir in 1989 offered the opportunity for a new unification attempt. Since Bashir's putsch, people's committees based on the model of the Libyan Jamahiriya had also been created in Sudan. Bashir, who sought military aid against the South Sudanese rebels in both Egypt and Libya, signed several treaties on March 5, 1990 during a short visit to Tripoli with the aim of establishing a union between Libya and Sudan. A joint Supreme Council, a joint Permanent Secretariat and a joint Council of Ministers should prepare for full integration within four years. When Gaddafi visited Khartoum on July 11, 1990, further protocols followed, and on September 1, 1990, Gaddafi and Bashir signed a “Charter of Integration” in Tripoli. On October 26, 1990, Gaddafi (according to other sources, Bashir) also asked Mubarak to participate in this union project, but Egypt refused.

The first success of the Libyan-Sudanese alliance was the overthrow of the Habré regime in Chad. The “Islamic Legion” invaded East Chad from West Sudan ( Darfur ) and in 1990 brought Idriss Déby to power in N'Djamena. France did not intervene. Libya signed a friendship agreement with Chad and returned the Aouzou strip after the international arbitration. Eventually Gaddafi, Bashir and Deby agreed on a United Political Leadership . However, the integration of Libya and Sudan did not progress. At a meeting in Tripoli on March 31, 1993, Gaddafi and Bashir therefore agreed to work more intensively on the union.

But after the agreed deadline had passed, the allies fell into conflict again in 1994. Libya denied all guilt for the division of the Arabs and 300,000 illegal Sudanese guest workers. The Sudanese side, on the other hand, only spoke of “delays” in 1995 and their embassy in Vienna surprised at the time with the excuse that they were now rather waiting for Iraq to join the project. The Iraqi embassy, ​​just as surprised, denied that the unity of the Arabs would never come about. In fact, after the Kuwait War, cooperation between the three states had begun. Libya and Sudan suffered diplomatic and aviation embargo, Iraq from no-fly zones and sanctions. On top of that, the US had imposed a trade boycott on Libya and Iraq. Since 1992, not only smuggling has flourished on the short Libyan-Sudanese border, but also official border trade. In contravention of the UN requirements, the resumption of flight connections was sought, and Libya also wanted to exchange various goods and aid with Iraq in air traffic via Jordan. Gaddafi assured Saddam Hussein of benevolent sympathy against a new American aggression. Sudanese-Iraqi embargo violations were carried out via Yemen, where the Libyan embassy had also been expanded. Instead, however, the United Political Leadership between Libya, Sudan and Chad was re-launched in 1995 , but without full unification being agreed.

With the start of oil production in Chad, Deby made himself independent from Gaddafi in 2003. Relations with Libya and Sudan deteriorated again when Chad ceded the oil concessions to US firms and switched to the US course in the Darfur conflict . Since the profits from the oil business benefited almost only the presidential clan, but hardly the country, rebel movements formed again, which are supported by Libya, but above all by Sudan.

African Union

Since 1999, Libya has devoted itself to building the African Union

Gaddafi had wanted to be elected chairman of the OAU as early as 1982, but failed because of the distrust of most of the Sahel states. Many African states broke off relations with Libya because of Gaddafi's involvement in the Chad civil war, and Daniel arap Moi was re-elected as a compromise (this was the only time in OAU history that a president had held office for two years in a row). During a visit to Burundi and Rwanda in May 1985, Gaddafi declared in the main mosque of Kigali that Islam was the religion of Africa, Christianity, on the other hand, was the religion of colonialism and the Jews, and that Christians were invaders in Africa. After the failure of his last pan-Arab or pan-Islamic unification project (Libya-Sudan), Gaddafi actually devoted himself only to pan-African unity. First, in 1998 Libya founded the Community of Sahel-Saharan States with the five states that it had once designated for its “United States of the Sahel”, but this is only a trade alliance. Even after other states joined, Libya initially financed 75% of the state organization's costs.

In view of the decades of failure of the OAU (it had not been able to solve any of the African problems or any of the African conflicts), from 1999 onwards, Gaddafi repeatedly suggested its replacement by an African Union based on the EU example - just as he had previously (in vain) the conversion the Arab League had suggested an Arab Union . He found support for this primarily from the South African President Nelson Mandela and his successor Thabo Mbeki . With the promise to take over the financing of the organs and institutions (African Parliament, commissions, etc.) in the initial phase, Gaddafi also convinced anti-Libyan critics. The AU was officially founded in mid-2002, and Gaddafi was elected President in 2009. A year earlier, at the 20th summit of the Arab League in Damascus in 2008, he had declared the idea of ​​Arab unity to have finally failed. Before that, the proposal for an “Arab Union” (see above), re-submitted jointly by Libya and Yemen in 2003, had failed.

See also

literature

  • Günter Barthel , Günter Nötzold (Ed.): The Arab countries. An economic-geographical representation. 3rd, revised edition. Haack, Gotha 1987, ISBN 3-7301-0855-7 .
  • Johannes Berger, Friedemann Büttner , Bertold Spuler : Middle East Ploetz. History of the Arab-Islamic world for reference. Freiburg (Breisgau) et al. 1987, ISBN 3-87640-321-9 .
  • Thea Büttner (Ed.): Africa. History from the beginning to the present. Volume 4: Africa from the collapse of the imperialist colonial system to the present (= Small Library. Vol. 158). Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1985, ISBN 3-7609-0438-6 .
  • Ulrich Haarmann (Ed.): History of the Arab World Beck, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-406-31488-0 .
  • Heinz Halm : The Arabs. From pre-Islamic history to the present (= Beck'sche series 2343 C.-H.-Beck-Wissen ). Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-50843-X .
  • Albert Hourani : The history of the Arab peoples (= Fischer 15085). Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-596-15085-X .
  • Günter Kettermann: Atlas on the history of Islam. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2001, pp. 163–166 (The Pan-Arabism: Pacts and Mergers).
  • Lothar Rathmann (ed.): History of the Arabs. From the beginning to the present. Volume 6–7 = Volume 3: The struggle for the development path in the Arab world. The collapse of the imperialist colonial system and the struggle of the Arab liberation movement for social progress. Part 2-3. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1983.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fritz Edlinger: A strange affair: Muammar al-Gaddafi and the European Left, Greens and Right , in: ders. (Ed.), Libyen , Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-85371-330-3 , p. 126
  2. ↑ Günther Barthel (Ed.): The Arab countries - An economic geographic representation. Haack, Gotha 1987, p. 11.
  3. ↑ Lothar Rathmann : History of the Arabs. Volume 6, Berlin 1983, page 185
  4. ↑ Malta - Gaddafi's outpost in Europe? In: Der Spiegel . No. 13 , 1979, pp. 165-178 ( Online - Mar. 26, 1979 ).
  5. ↑ Get rid of it ! In: Der Spiegel . No. 39 , 1980, pp. 185-187 ( online - 22 September 1980 ).
  6. ↑ Africa research bulletin: economic, financial and technical series, Volume 10, 1973
  7. ↑ Adel Elias, Bernhard Müller-Hülsebusch: Spiegel conversation: "Then I turn off the oil tap." The Libyan head of state Muammar el-Gaddafi on his independent course . In: Der Spiegel . No. 30 , 1980, pp. 92-99 ( online - 21 July 1980 ).
  8. ↑ Martin Stäheli: The Syrian foreign policy under President Hafez Assad. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, page 172f .
  9. ↑ The entire northern half of the country is populated by barely a tenth of the total population
  10. ^ Leader of the Revolution . In: Der Spiegel . No. 19 , 1986, pp. 141-143 ( Online - May 5, 1986 ).
  11. ↑ War of the Sands . In: Der Spiegel . No. 3 , 1981, p. 96-97 ( Online - Jan. 12, 1981 ).
  12. ↑ a b He is a bully, but also a rabbit's foot . In: Der Spiegel . No. 33 , 1983, pp. 90-92 ( Online - Aug. 15, 1983 ).
  13. ↑ a b Biggest bang . In: Der Spiegel . No. 33 , 1982, pp. 102 ( Online - Aug. 15, 1982 ).
  14. ^ Munzinger Archive / IH-Zeitarchiv, NIger 35/91, Chronik 1990
  15. ^ Time online from September 7, 1984: Wedding in Maghrebian
  16. ↑ Gustav Fochler-Hauke (Ed.): Der Fischer Weltalmanach '86 , page 183. Fischer, Frankfurt (Main) 1985
  17. ^ Robin Leonard Bidwell : Dictionary of Modern Arab History , pp. 319f ("Arab-African Union"). Routledge, New York 1998
  18. ↑ Dear people . In: Der Spiegel . No. 37 , 1984, pp. 128-130 ( online - 10 September 1984 ).
  19. ^ Munzinger-Archiv / IH-Zeitarchiv, Sudan 26/85, Chronik 1985
  20. ↑ The guest of the king is Allah's guest . In: Der Spiegel . No. 31 , 1986, pp. 84-88 ( online - 28 July 1986 ).
  21. ^ A b Munzinger Archive / IH-Zeitarchiv, Libya 12-13 / 88, Chronicle 1986
  22. ↑ a b Munzinger Archive / IH-Zeitarchiv, Libya 20/86, Chronicle 1985
  23. ↑ Munzinger-Archiv / IH-Zeitarchiv, Sudan 27/87, Chronik 1986
  24. ^ A b Munzinger-Archiv / IH-Zeitarchiv, Libya 12-13 / 88, Chronik 1987
  25. ^ Munzinger Archive / IH-Zeitarchiv, Algerien 23/89, Chronicle 1987
  26. ↑ John P. Entelis, Lisa Arone: A Country Study: Algeria - Africa - The Maghrib Library of Congress (December 1993)
  27. ↑ Thomas Koszinowski, Hanspeter Mattes: Nahost Jahrbuch 1988 , page 109. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1989
  28. ↑ Fischer Weltalmanach '90, pages 368 (Morocco) and 663f (UAM). Frankfurt 1989
  29. ^ Munzinger Archive / IH-Zeitarchiv, Libya 46/93, Chronicle 1989
  30. ↑ “Le Quotidien D'Oran” of December 23, 2003, page 1: Le Maghreb en Lambeaux
  31. ↑ Adel Elias, Dieter Wild: Spiegel conversation: “We will soon turn our fate.” PLO security chief Abu Ijad on the new situation in the Middle East and a Palestinian government in exile . In: Der Spiegel . No. 35 , 1988, pp. 131-136 ( online - August 29, 1988 ).
  32. ^ Fischer Weltalmanach '90, pages 222 (GDR) and 419-422 (Palestine). Frankfurt 1989
  33. ↑ Helen Chapin Metz: A Country Study: Sudan - Libya Library of Congress (1991)
  34. ^ A b Andreas Fleischer: Unification attempt no ... In: Neues Deutschland from March 14, 1990, page 3
  35. ^ Munzinger-Archiv / IH-Zeitarchiv, Libya 46/93, Chronik 1990
  36. ^ Munzinger Archive / IH-Zeitarchiv, Libya 46/93, Chronicle 1993
  37. ↑ Arab German Consulting: Sudan (History)
  38. ^ Stefan Krekeler: Military database on Libya
  39. ↑ Al Jazeera of June 20, 2008: Arab Unity - The end? Disunity and inaction
  40. ↑ Alexandra Samoleit and Hanspeter Mattes: The blocked reform of the Arab League ( Memento from February 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 502 kB) GIGA Hamburg 2008