INT REVIEW OF THE Subscription rates: 6 months £9.50, 1 year £18 French francs if 10: PEC BUP Robespierre, 230179/90. • Postal After the attack on Tripoli Five ducts.
further silence Occidental, terests in Libya. adopted Ich Oil initiative out with the US (and West right away, government national For, social 1970s.' drop in available gelicia.
irrigating large economic Libya has Bleed opMexico, additional PIosmaller Duree war its most port part of the bombers striking distance.
years ago, 1981, Washington imposed an embargo on imports of Libyan crude oil. Late last year, this was extended to refined proNow, 1S pushing another economic attack. He is attempting to get US oil companies like Conoco, Marathon and Amerada Hess to abandon their inThis is unlikely to have much ef fect, as Nocilas Sarkis, editor of Arab and Gas, pointed out in the February 1986 issues of the Parisbased monthly AfricAsia: If they were to abide by the White House directive and pull out of the country Libya would probably have no trouble in replacing them unless there were a widespread interboycott, which unthinkable, any more than it had difficulty in coping with the withdrawal of Exxon in 1982, and Mobil in 1983 , come to that , the departure of British Petroleum, Bunker Hunt and the others Libya nationalised in the The stagnation of world oil prices in the past three years has led to a Libyan cult cul reserves meet balance of payments deficits. It has also brought some cuts in government spending But Libya enters this period of difficulty without long term debt, with substantial reserves, and with a population that has drawn considerable benetits from the higher prices of the past decade Libya's problems will be tiny compared to those ot countries such a Nigeria, and Indonesia. In unlike loe other oil-rich former US ally, Iran, Libya has a far population to feed (three million compared to 40 million), and hasn't been bled by a long and costly The US administration is today on aggressive interventionist path since its defeat in Vietnam. Sup.
contras Angola, and Mozambique, increased military threats to Indochina through an arms build-up in Thailand, and even direct multarv intervention such as in Grenada and Lebanon, have increase easons done me wore Following the failure of the US economic attacks on Libya, the current military attacks are part of an effort to make military solutions an accepted part of international politics In the Middle East, the bogey of 'Libyan terrorism' has been used to overshadow the plight of Palestinan victims of Israeli military aggression.
The attacks on Libya also send a message to any Third World country that might want to take its own independent stance: lilallel what world is involved US warships within
Socialist Action 2 May 1986