Reply #50: NATO member Italy moves to secure its share of the booty in Libya [View All]

[Cali_Democrat]

Italy moves to secure its share of the booty in Libya
By Marianne Arens
14 September 2011

Italy is not prepared to yield its traditional influence in Libya to its rivals. Italian business and political circles take for granted their right to decide on the future of the oil and gas wealth of the country’s former colony.

“Italy will be the first partner of Libya, as it always has been,” Foreign Minister Franco Frattini declared September 3 at an economic forum in Cernobbio on Lake Como. “Italy will always maintain its first place.”

At the same economic forum, Frattini announced the release of the first tranche of €500 million in frozen Libyan assets. By mid-September, the assets held by Italy are to be handed over to the imperialist-backed National Transitional Council (NTC).

Just a week earlier, Paolo Scaroni, the CEO of Italian energy giant ENI, traveled to Benghazi and reached an agreement with representatives of the NTC for ENI to reassume control over a gas pipeline and oil production in the regions of Misla and Sarir in the east of the country. In return, ENI will provide the so-called “rebels” with gasoline as well as technical assistance for oil production.

Read more: http://wsws.org/articles/2011/sep2011/ital-s14.shtml