I see many people who believe that the consequences of these uprisings will be a deterrent in the future, but I completely disagree because these uprisings happened as a result of a real developmental failure. What is worse is that we have globalized societies linked to the New World, but the governments continue to adopt ancient tools so the situation imploded, and we still handled it with ancient means. This violence is temporary, but the structural imbalances in the Arab regimes that followed World War II will continue to exist; however, the following reaction would be even more powerful.
Al-Hayat: How do you see the Egyptian position regarding the situation in Libya?
Jibril: Unless the situation stabilizes in Libya, Egypt and North Africa will remain unstable as well. Libya is like a fireball that could roll in any direction. I do not think this large amount of weapons is aimed at being used in Libya alone. The weapons in Libya are enough to arm seven African armies. Can anyone convince me that this pumping of weapons is only intended to contain the [internal] situation? I personally do not think so, and I hope that I am wrong. For Egypt, dealing with the Libyan issue is not a matter of choice, but a necessity. The same goes for Tunisia, Algeria and most of the neighboring countries that may be affected by the repercussions of the Libyan issue. I believe Egypt is showing interest and the Egyptian administration is honest and determined to do something. The approach of the UN-brokered Libyan Political Agreement in Skhirat will not lead to a positive result, but rather to further deterioration.
Al-Hayat: Back when you were prime minister in Libya, did you come across precise information on the fate of Imam Musa al-Sadr [an Iranian-Lebanese Shiite cleric who disappeared in Libya in 1978]?
Jibril: I have no information. The executive office deployed efforts to solve this case and we followed up on some of the leads that led us to Abu Salim prison. We found remains we believed were the remains of Imam Musa al-Sadr. We contacted the Lebanese prime minister at the time — Najib Mikati — and asked him to send a Lebanese forensic medical examiner, because many of the bodies that were found in refrigerators dated back to the 1970s and 1980s; and there was one forensic examiner in Tripoli [Libya]. We believed that the remains belonged to Imam Sadr, but the DNA analysis showed that the remains were those of Mr. Mansour al-Kikhia. I do not know what happened after that in the case of Imam Musa al-Sadr.