Libyan foreign minister and senior Gaddafi aide ‘defects’ to UK

The Libyan foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, is in London after flying to Farnborough airport in Hampshire on a private flight yesterday.

The British government said Koussa had resigned his post. It was not clear whether his apparent defection was linked to Britain’s decision to expel five Libyan diplomats who were part of the embassy’s political wing and “could pose a threat” to security. They are believed to have been threatening Libyan exiles linked to the Libyan Transitional Council, the rebel government. It is understood that Koussa, who was one of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s closest aides, has already been questioned by British intelligence but had not yet met the foreign secretary, William Hague, with whom he had been in touch in recent days. The timing of Koussa’s defection is curious, coming as it does after Gaddafi’s forces swept rebels from the Libyan dictator’s home town of Sirte, before moving on to swiftly retake the towns of Nawfaliyah, Bin Jawad, Ras Lanuf and Brega. The rebels were now trying to regroup in the strategic town of Ajdabiyah. In Libya, officials denied Koussa had resigned, saying he was on a diplomatic mission. This could well have been what the Gaddafi government believed when Koussa crossed into Tunisia on March 28, possibly with a remit to negotiate a ceasefire from a position of strength, now that Gaddafi forces had begun to recover lost territory from the rebels. But the British government insisted that the Libyan foreign minister was no longer prepared to support the regime. “Koussa is one of the most senior figures in Gaddafi’s government and his role was to represent the regime internationally – something that he is no longer willing to do,” a British official said, adding that his defection might be used to urge other Libyans close to Gaddafi to do the same. Koussa, who had been foreign minister since 2009, had headed the Libyan intelligence agency from 1994 to 2009. He is a former ambassador to Britain, but was expelled in 1980 after threatening to track down and eliminate Libyan exiles. His more extreme days apparently behind him, Koussa had worked hard in recent years to bring about the normalisation of relations between Libya and the United States and Britain and other European countries. It was not clear whether Koussa would now join the Transitional Council, which was set up in the rebel city of Benghazi.

Donate to us: support independent, intelligent, in-depth Scottish journalism from just 3p a day

Related posts:

1. Libyan foreign minister wanted for questioning over Lockerbie bomb
2. Uncertainty over Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte as Libya enters civil war
3. Is it a case of waiting for the Libyan smoke to clear?