Libya halts fuel supplies to Swiss
2008-07-24 13:41
Tripoli - Libya on Thursday said it would halt fuel supplies to key oil client, Switzerland, in the latest reprisal for last week's brief detention in Geneva of Hannibal, a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The supplies affected were those transported by ships operated by the Libyan national maritime transport company only, a statement by the company said.
Oil transported by commercial vessels would not be affected.
A joint statement by the national maritime transport company and the port authority threatened further, unspecified reprisals and said Swiss-flagged ships had been banned from entering Libyan ports.
The statement warned of "new escalatory measures" against Switzerland and demanded that Bern "closes within the next few hours the case it fabricated" against Hannibal.
'Libya will be punishing itself'
It also demanded that Switzerland apologise for Hannibal's arrest in a Geneva hotel on July 15 alongside his wife after being accused of assaulting some of their staff. The couple were freed on bail two days later.
The statement was issued as protests organised by the shipping company and the port authority were underway outside the Swiss embassy in Tripoli.
Hannibal, 32, was the official "adviser" of the national maritime transport company, which owned 10 vessels and handled nearly all oil exports from Libya.
The head of Swiss Petroleum Association Rolf Hartel said in Geneva that "Libya would be punishing itself" by cutting off supplies to Switzerland, which could easily acquire oil products from other countries within days.
"Economically it would make no sense," Hartel said on Wednesday, adding that Switzerland had more than four months of reserves of petrol, diesel and fuel oil.
Diplomatic delegation leaves Bern
He also noted that one of the two Swiss oil refineries, at Collombey, was owned by Libyan company Tamoil, which also ran 320 filling stations in the country.
Libya's announcement to halt oil supplies to Switzerland came as an official Swiss delegation was in Tripoli to try to contain the crisis.
"A diplomatic delegation left Bern for Tripoli on Wednesday to give explanations to the Libyan authorities" on the arrest of Gaddafi's son, the Swiss foreign ministry said.
The ministry also said that Libya had been retaliating since July 17, the day Hannibal was freed on bail.
Libya's envoy in Switzerland had been recalled and the Libyan authorities suspended the issuing of visas to Swiss citizens, the ministry said.
Air links between Switzerland and Libya had been reduced and Swiss businesses in Libya had received closure orders, it added.
Libya had also shut the local offices of Swiss food group Nestle and engineering firm ABB and detained officials of both, reports said.
The Swiss ATS news agency said the representative of Nestle in Libya, an Egyptian national, was held for several hours before being released, while ABB said that one of its Swiss employees was being held by the Libyan authorities.