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Sirte, Libya: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi Tuesday
called
Barack Obama
a "flicker of hope in the middle of the imperialist darkness," but
said he feared the president could be assassinated.
Gaddafi, known for his controversial statements, did not say who
might want to kill Obama but gave the examples of the assassinations
of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, as well as black
rights leader Martin Luther King.
"I
fear that they could liquidate this young man or force him to submit
to their imperialist policies," Gaddafi told a university gathering
of his supporters in Sirte, without specifying who might put Obama
under pressure.
"Obama
is a flicker of hope in the middle of the imperialist darkness," the
Libyan leader said, adding: "There is a fear that they would
liquidate him as they liquidated Kennedy, Martin Luther King and
Abraham Lincoln."
Gaddafi, who is the African Union chairman, had offered to work with
Obama to sustain security, stability and prosperity in Africa and
elsewhere.
Gaddafi praised Obama for breaking with what he said was the
previous American foreign policy that dictated to the rest of the
world what to do to serve U.S. interests.
"He
(Obama) speaks logically. Arrogance no longer exists in the American
approach which was previously based on dictating to the rest of the
world in order to meet its own conditions," Gaddafi said in the
remarks carried by state media.
Gaddafi, who took power in 1969 in a military coup in his oil- and
gas-rich North African state, was shunned for decades by the West,
which accused him of supporting terrorism.
His
ties with Western countries have improved since Libya announced in
2003 it was scrapping weapons of mass destruction programs and
agreed to pay compensation for families of victims of bombings of
U.S. and French airliners.
Writing by Lamine Ghanmi
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