Syria played role in Gaddafi's downfall
Date October 2, 2012
Muammar Gaddafi Photo: Reuters
THE Assad regime in Syria brought about Muammar Gaddafi's death by providing France with the key intelligence which led to the operation that killed him, sources in Libya have claimed.
French spies operating in Sirt, Gaddafi's last refuge, were able to set a trap for the Libyan dictator after obtaining his satellite telephone number from the Syrian government, they said.
In what would amount to an extraordinary betrayal of one Middle Eastern dictator by another, President Bashar al-Assad sold out his fellow tyrant in an act of self-preservation, a former senior intelligence official in Tripoli said.
With international attention switching from Libya to the mounting horrors in Syria, Dr Assad offered Paris the telephone number in exchange for an easing of French pressure on Damascus, according to Rami El Obeidi.
"In exchange for this information, Assad had obtained a promise of a grace period from the French and less political pressure on the regime — which is what happened," Mr Obeidi said.
While it was not possible to verify Mr Obeidi's allegation independently, Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, played a leading role in both the NATO mission to bomb Libya and in bringing international pressure to bear on the Assad regime.
The claims by Mr Obeidi, the former head of foreign intelligence for the movement that overthrew Gaddafi, followed comments by Mahmoud Jibril, who served as prime minister in the transitional government and now leads one of Libya's largest political parties.
He confirmed over the weekend that a foreign "agent" was involved in the operation that killed Gaddafi, but did not identify his nationality.
However the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera quoted Western diplomats in Tripoli as saying that if a foreign agent was involved "he was almost certainly French". The news of the Syria deal could potentially embarrass NATO, which initially claimed that it did "not target individuals".
According to the alliance's official version, an RAF reconnaissance plane spotted a large convoy of vehicles trying to flee Sirt on October 20 last year, two months after Gaddafi fled Tripoli.
NATO warplanes bombed the convoy, apparently unaware of who was travelling in it, before militia fighters found.
