The pendulum swung towards increased political chaos and a dangerous deterioration of the security situation in Libya when a car bomb exploded in front of the French embassy in Tripoli on Tuesday morning. Paradoxically, this is the first major attack on a foreign embassy in the Libyan capital since 1986 when the United States bombed the French embassy by accident. Previously most of the terrorist attacks on Western diplomatic missions in Libya were centred on Benghazi, the capital of Libya's eastern Cyrenaica province and the country's second largest city. The Tripoli blast wounded two guards and caused extensive damage to the French embassy and neighbouring villas, including the official residence of the Algerian ambassador to Libya. It is not clear exactly who was responsible for the attack but France has been subject to threats from various militant Islamist and terrorist groups since it launched a military operation earlier this year to oust Islamist rebels in neighbouring Mali. Tuesday's blast in Tripoli is widely viewed as a retaliatory measure for French military intervention in Mali. Libyan authorities believe that the blast that completely destroyed the French embassy's reception area and parts of neighbouring residential buildings in this plush neighbourhood of the Libyan capital was triggered by a booby-trapped car. An investigation is under way into what French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called an “odious act”. The Tripoli blast puts the government of Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan in a most awkward position. The centrepiece of French President François Hollande's speech when he received Zeidan in Paris last month was coordinating with Western and Arab leaders debating Libyan calls for Western and Arab allies to help secure the country's borders. The odds against securing Libya were piled against successive post-Muammar Gaddafi governments in the country ever since the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi in September 2012 that led to the death of Washington's ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. The blast in Tripoli did not result in the death of any French diplomats, but still it was an embarrassment to the government of Libyan Prime Minister Zeidan. He said French officials were working with the Libyan authorities to identify those responsible. The blast took place in a small side street, causing extensive damage to the buildings and parked cars, highlighting that the Libyan authorities are unable to enforce law and order in the country. Diplomatic missions in Libya have been attacked in the past and graffiti is regularly sprayed on the walls of Western diplomatic missions in Tripoli and Benghazi. Residents in the neighbourhood of Western embassies no longer want to live next to a Western embassy. The borders of Libya are porous. Sebha, a former Gaddafi stronghold and Libya's gateway to Mali and other countries south of the Sahara, has become a regional centre for insecurity in the entire Sahara region. But, Libya's porous borders make it easy for terrorist groups to roam the sprawling North African desert nation awash with weapons. The consensus among Western powers at the moment is that there is a need to ensure that the pressure to increase spending and the provision of logistical support to the Libyan authorities must be directed at areas in the oil-rich country where such support will have the most transformational impact. The gravity of the security situation in Libya is matched only by the political instability lawlessness generates. And, Western military intervention in the region instead of presenting an opportunity for peace aggravates the situation further. The fears that defeated Islamist rebels, fleeing French forces in Mali, will enter Libyan territory, further destabilising the oil producer, are palpable. Concern over security in the endless wastelands of the Sahara has intensified after Islamist militants seized hostages at Algeria's In Amenas gas plant, not far from the Libyan border. Scores of foreign workers were killed in In Amenas after Algerian troops stormed the complex to end the hostage crisis, an unknown number of hostage-takers were arrested or killed, and the militant Islamists vowed to retaliate against France and Algeria. In Brussels, European Union foreign ministers approved blueprints of a special mission to assist the Libyan authorities with the tightening of the vast country's border security and to combat arms-smuggling and stop militant Islamist militias from crossing into Libyan territory. The paradox is that many observers suspect that the militant Islamist militias are already based inside Libyan territory. Western training and advisory missions are most likely to fail and to escalate the violence in Libya and the Saharan region. British Prime Minister David Cameron's surprise visit to Tripoli a few months ago after the In Amenas incident pledged Britain's support in training Libya's security forces, as part of a broader European efforts to counter Islamic militancy in the Sahara and Sahelian regions of North Africa. Western pledges to cooperate on security and intelligence with Libya and other governments of the region are highly unlikely to produce positive results. In the Libyan capital, Cameron visited a police training academy and Martyrs Square. Cameron called North Africa and the Sahel a “magnet for jihadists” and warned of a “generational struggle” against them. But, for all we know, the British embassy in Tripoli might be the next target of the terrorists' wrath. Western nations now intend to coordinate security and intelligence cooperation with Libya and other Saharan and Sahelian regions. They have espoused a policy of empowering regional African governments to bolster the rule of law and democratic institutions. In the case of Libya, such a policy cannot yield results. The goal of combatting terrorism is worthy, to be sure. However, the Libyan people themselves must secure their own freedom from terrorism. Indefinite reliance on Western powers will only bolster the militant Islamist forces in the region and result in more blasts such as the one that rocked Tripoli on Tuesday. In this respect, the proper exploitation of Libya's vast oil reserves for the service of the Libyan people is crucial. Libya's Oil Minister Abdel-Bari Al-Arusi recently pledged that Libya, with Africa's largest oil reserves, is intent on putting aside some of the oil revenues specifically for the purpose of combatting terrorism and ensuring security in the country. Pleased as many in Libya will be by Al-Arusi's promise, they will see his government's response to attacks on Western diplomatic missions in the country as too timid. Libya's officials merely restate the obvious. The Libyan authorities face demands to adopt a firmer stance towards terrorists. Momentum is building in Libya and the entire Saharan region for the creation of virulently anti-Western militant Islamist emirates. A superficial democratising of Libya under the current conditions will only speed up the process of lawlessness.
