Musa Sadr

Relations between Libya and Lebanon have deteriorated dramatically in recent weeks as a result of a renewed campaign by Shi'ite political leaders to pressure Moammar Qadhafi into revealing the whereabouts of Imam Musa al-Sadr, the spiritual leader of Lebanese Shi'ites who disappeared mysteriously during a visit to Libya 22 years ago. Most Lebanese Shi'ites have long maintained that Qadhafi's men assassinated Sadr and his two companions, Sheikh Muhammad Yaqoub and Abbas Bader Eddine, a journalist, whereas Libya has stood by its unlikely claim that Sadr boarded a plane to Rome (the Italian government says there is no record of this).

The crisis erupted last month when Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri refused to invite Libya's ambassador in Beirut, Ali Maria, to the opening session of Lebanon's newly-elected parliament. Libya reacted by recalling its ambassador and officials in Tripoli declared that Maria would not return so long as Berri remained parliament speaker. Libya's main state-run newspaper published an editorial demanding that the estimated 15,000 Lebanese who live and work in the country be expelled.¹

In an attempt to defuse the crisis, a delegation led by Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri traveled to Libya and met with Qadhafi on November 20. "We consider the Libyans and Lebanese to be brothers . . . we are sons of one country and we aim to develop ties at all levels," he told journalists after the meeting. "Our brothers here are eager to improve these relations and the Lebanese nationals who live here are very aware of this fact. For our part we highly appreciate the leader Moammar Qadhafi."² Hariri's shameless praise of the Libyan dictator seemed to pay off, for he received a pledge from Qadhafi to "separate" politics from economics in the two countries' bilateral relations. The two leaders also discussed the formation of a joint Lebanese-Libyan security committee to determine Sadr's fate.

Berri openly thwarted Hariri's initiative, however, by rallying Shi'ite religious and political leaders to speak out in the closing session of a three day conference commemorating Sadr's ideology. The head of the Higher Shi'ite Council, Sheikh Muhammad Mehdi Shamseddine, went as far as to accuse Libya of fueling violence during the Lebanese civil war. Libya poured money into Lebanon "when there was sectarian uprising in the country, but when the age of the resistance [against Israel] rose, what happened to this aid? This is a big question to be posed," said Shamseddine in a speech read by his deputy, Sheikh Abdel-Amir Qabalan. Berri, for his part, hinted that Libya conspired with Israel during the civil war, noting that the disappearance of Sadr occurred only four months after Israel's 1978 invasion.³

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who had previously been very reluctant to raise the issue publicly, called the inability of past Lebanese governments to fully investigate the matter "painful and insulting." He rejected Hariri's proposal for a joint Lebanese-Libyan committee as an effort to "absolve Qadhafi of responsibility," demanding instead that the government appoint a high-level ministerial committee, under the supervision of the Higher Shiite Council, to launch an inquiry. "We demand a clear mechanism with clear goals. We haven't heard anything from this government," said Nasrallah, adding that "citizens will take matters into their own hands" if nothing is done.⁴

Nasrallah's remarks have been widely interpreted as suggesting that the guerrilla group may target Libyans as a means of pressuring Qadhafi. Interestingly, the Lebanese daily newspaper Al-Safir received a statement by fax from a group calling itself the Al-Sadr Brigades, which criticized Hariri's recent visit to Libya as an "insult and an act of defiance to the feelings of the honest people in this homeland." The statement pledged to take revenge on Qadhafi and his "lackeys," stressing that "we, along with all the free people, will not rest until we exact retribution against them, in an appropriate way and at an appropriate time."⁵

With the failure of Hariri's initiative to calm public outrage at Qadhafi, relations between Libya and Lebanon continued to deteriorate. In late November, Libyan authorities began imposing an entry visa on carriers of Lebanese passports, as well as Syrian passports (an implicit recognition of who the Libyans deem to be the ultimate authority in Beirut). Al-Sharq al-Awsat quoted Arab diplomats in Tripoli as saying that the decision reflects Qadhafi's feelings of "strong regret" stemming from the campaign against him in Lebanon.⁶

Qhadafi's troubles in this regard are far from over. On November 30, Al-Sharq al-Awsat published statements by a high ranking Iranian diplomat who served as the political advisor for the Iranian embassy in Libya claiming that Sadr and his two companions are being held in a military prison near the Libyan city of Sabha.

Notes

  ¹ Al-Jamahiriyya (Tripoli), 19 November 2000.
  ² SPLAJ Radio (Tripoli), 20 November 2000.
  ³ The Daily Star (Beirut) 27 November 2000.
  ⁴ The Daily Star (Beirut) 27 November 2000.
  ⁵ Al-Safir (Beirut), 27 November 2000.
  ⁶ Al-Sharq al-Awsat (London), 2 December 2000.