All this clandestine maneuvering paid off.
On Feb. 26, 2011, the UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1970 aimed at establishing "peace and security" and protecting the civilian population in the Libyan civil war. Or at least that was how UNR 1970 was sold to countries on the Security Council, like South Africa, Brazil, India, China and Russia, that had initial doubts. However, the French, Americans and British -- along with several NATO allies -- saw the resolution as an opportunity to overthrow Qaddafi and in France's case, to get back in the game as a force in the region.
Almost before the ink was dry on the resolution, France, Britain and the U.S. began systematically bombing Qaddafi's armed forces, ignoring pleas by the African Union to look for a peaceful way to resolve the civil war. According to one memo, President Sarkozy "plans to have France lead the attacks on [Qaddafi] over an extended period of time" and "sees this situation as an opportunity for France to reassert itself as a military power."
While for France flexing its muscles was an important goal, Al-Monitor says that a September memo also shows that "Sarkozy urged the Libyans to reserve 35 percent of their oil industry for French firms -- TOTAL in particular -- when he traveled to Tripoli that month."
In the end, Libya imploded and Paris has actually realized little in the way of oil, but France's military industrial complex has done extraordinarily well in the aftermath of Qaddafi's fall.
According to Defense Minister Jean-Yves Lodrian, French arms sales increased 42 percent from 2012, bringing in $7 billion, and are expected to top almost $8 billion in 2014.
Over the past decade, France, the former colonial masters of Lebanon, Syria, and Algeria, has been sidelined by U.S. and British arms sales to the Middle East. But the Libya war has turned that around. Since then, Paris has carefully courted Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates by taking a hard line on the Iran nuclear talks.
The global security analyst group Stratfor noted in 2013, "France could gain financially from the GCC's [Gulf Cooperation Council, the organization representing the oil monarchies of the Persian Gulf] frustrations over recent U.S. policy in the Middle East. Significant defense contracts worth tens of billions of dollars are up for grabs in the Gulf region, ranging from aircraft to warships to missile systems. France is predominantly competing with Britain and the United States for the contracts and is seeking to position itself as a key ally of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as it looks to strengthen its defense and industrial ties in the region."
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