From 2011, a summary of the
Obama administration's response to the popular revolts in the Middle East, the Arab Spring:
In
interviews in recent days, officials acknowledged that the United
States had limited influence over many actors in the region, and that
the upheaval in Egypt, in particular, could scramble its foreign-policy
agenda.
So
it is proceeding gingerly, balancing the democratic aspirations of
young Arabs with cold-eyed strategic and commercial interests. That
sometimes involves supporting autocratic and unpopular governments —
which has turned many of those young people against the United States.
From an
email to Hillary Clinton describing Libya, whose oil minister is
not alone in being connected to the industry he oversees (a kind of
corruption that
Reuters described as "cosy"):
In a private conversation, Jalil stated that he is working to balance
the internal political realities of Libya against the
concerns of the international business community.
The President is concerned that the appointment of BenYezza
as Oil Minister in October 2011 provided the JCP with a
tangible concern to use against NTCcandidates during the July
elections.
After his long experience as a senior official of the
Multinational Italian Oil FirmENI, Ben Yezza is viewed by Belhaj and
many members of the LMB as a symbol of the issue they will
pursue in the national election, the idea that NTC, like the
Qaddafi, regime is corrupt and involved in allowing foreign
interests to control the nation's mineral wealth.
