Muscat meets Libyan leader in Tripoli

Labour Leader Joseph Muscat has had a one-and-a-half-hour meeting this morning with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi during day two of his official visit to Libya. The meeting was announced in a statement issued by the PL.

The PL statement explained how the meeting, which took place at the Libyan capital Tripoli, expressed his hope that “the relations between the two would improve”.

On his part, Muscat expressed the PL’s hope, after having started diplomatic relationships with Libya, that these relations between the two countries would develop, “especially in the friendship between the two peoples as well as in the economic sphere”.

During the long meeting with the Libyan leader, for which a PL delegation was present together with Libyan authorities, both sides expressed their view on various subjects, including the relationships between the two countries, Mediterranean security and the African situation.

Muscat, the PL added, also conveyed to the Libyan leader “the wishes of former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff to Gaddafi”.

On his part, Gaddafi was quoted as saying that “a lot of what has been done between the two countries was due to the honest relationship with Mintoff which led to concrete facts,” the PL statement added.

On his part, Gaddafi conveyed his “best wishes” to Mintoff on his 94th birthday on Friday.

The PL statement did not specify whether during his meeting with Gaddafi, he discussed the Libyan treatment of asylum seekers as well as BP’s recent drilling off the Libyan coast.

However, a PL statement added that during other meetings with other Libyan authorites, including Abdel Kader al Baghadi, Suleiman al Shahmouni and Moustapha Zaidi, the BP drilling issue was raised, besides energy, trade between the two sides and illegal migration.

On the BP drilling issue, the PL delegation for the Libyan position following the oil spill at the Gulf of Mexico, where BP as also involved.

The PL delegation noted that such a spill in the Mediterranean would have “a negative impact on both countries, with Malta suffering from the environmental, touristic and water generation consequences”.

The Libyan side was quoted saying that it was “in its interest to take all necessary safety measures because the effect of an oil spill on Libya would leave very bad consequences”.

The Libyan authorities pledged that they were going to ensure that BP observed “all necessary security measures” usually adopted by the oil drilling industry, the PL statement concluded.

The PL delegation was also composed of Labour’s main spokesperson for Foreign Affairs George Vella, Labour MP Karmenu Vella, Labour’s main spokesperson for Social Policy Michael Farrugia and party international secretary Alex Sciberras Trigona.

Muscat, together with the PL delegation, returned to Malta later today.

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Clayton Saliba
Mintoff sold Malta's sould to Libya - FOREVER Muscat is the puppet for the Colonel , just as any PL leader would have to be. The Col' gun boat shooting at Malta Oil Drill contractor , only because the PN were elected by the Maltese. When PL is in power, Libya would allow the Drilling Contractor Back - that's the deal with selling Malta's Soul by Mintoff and the Col will have a puppet speaking for him here. Muscat the naive, has no mandate to speak on behalf of Libya, he has tried pretending he offere dialogue with Gonzi who wisely avoided any missrepresantation that could be misconstrued as giving Muscat any authority. By attending and pretending he has power already, Muscat is confirming his true self, a puppet for another country and a dicator for the maltese. So, we get what we deserve, but all is not lost yet - PN should take this serious and expose the truth and let everyone know, even if the Col get angry. Malta must come first now and in the long term.
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@nomis101 It is a glaring fact that Libya is more predisposed towards PL then gonziPN and for good reason. No one call forget the name calling by the facist right "Tal-habba ziz, tal-lakumia, mahmugin, terroristi etc etc " of arabs especially the Libyans. Don't doubt it for a minute that the dealings of gonziPN with countries like Dubai have not been done with PN's past history of their relation with arabs in question. Take GO for example, how they managed to get their hands on a Lm10 million piece of land with the compliments of Austin and Lawrence. Why should Joseph divulged what had been discussed between a PL delegation and Libyan authorities. Gonzi refuses to publish the BWSC contract in full ........ if there is any convincieing with regards a leader's credentials, Joseph's are way above those of Gonzi or any of his cohorts.
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Why are you so hot under the collar NOMIS101? Is it because Joseph took the initiative while Dr Gonzi slept on the issue as usual Simon?
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Jeffrey Camilleri
This event convinces me more not to trust Joseph. Tell the people the importance of this meeting, be transparent as you say you want to be!! If important for country ?, this should be tackled with government. Are you progessive, new, transparent?Joseph? or back to those days of Mintoff, Gaddafi kollox!! So we shut our mouth.
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Interesting to learn, that it had to be the leader of the opposition Dr.Muscat to show the concern about the BP oil drilling close to our Island. Best of luck Joseph.
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Muscat meets Libyan leader in Tripoli. Tuesday, MT. August 03, 2010