Home
Politics
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi speaks during the Arab Summit in the Libyan city of Sirte.
"The Arab masses and people are fed up with words," Kadhafi said in his speech.
"They are waiting for action, not words and speeches," he said, hosting his first ever summit in the Mediterranean city of Sirte, his hometown.
He described Arab citizens as "revolutionaries who are always on the defensive," and advised his fellow leaders "to take decisions that match the expectations" of their people.
But when the emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani suggested that Arab leaders had achieved too little, Kadhafi said he didn't think his guest would do much better.
Then, taking a jab at the girth of his tall and heavy guest, he said the Qatari leader was "better than me at filling a void," before bursting out in a laugh.
In September, Kadhafi defied orders at the UN General Assembly to speak for 15 minutes, and went on for more than 90 minutes.
His rambling speech tried the patience of many UN delegates and caused the literal collapse of an interpreter. Seventy-five minutes into the diatribe, the translator threw in the towel, crying "I just can't take it anymore."
Kadhafi, the longest serving Arab leader, was born in a bedouin tent in the desert near Sirte in 1942, and has a reputation of never mincing his words and of riling Western and Arabic leaders alike with provocative statements.
Thirteen heads of state answered his invitation to attend the summit which is expected to focus on a common strategy against Israel's controversial settlement policy in annexed east Jerusalem.
Among those absent are regional powerbroker King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia who was insulted by Kadhafi at last year's summit in Qatar.
"It has been six years since you have been avoiding a confrontation with me," Kadhafi snapped at Abdullah at last year's summit, just as summit host Sheikh Hamad was ending his speech.
"You are always lying and you're facing the grave and you were made by Britain and protected by the United States," Kadhafi told Abdullah in front of 15 other leaders attending the annual gathering.
"I am the leader of the Arab leaders, the king of kings of Africa and the imam of the Muslims," proclaimed Kadhafi, the Arab world's longest serving leader who has been in power since 1969.
At an Arab summit in 1988 he wore a white glove on his right hand to avoid shaking "bloodstained hands," and the following year he blew smoke from a fat cigar into the face of the late king Fahd of Saudi Arabia.
At the 2005 Arab summit in Algiers he upstaged the final session with an unscheduled address in which he described Israel and the Palestinians as "idiots," leaving his audience in fits of laughter.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"They are waiting for action, not words and speeches," he said, hosting his first ever summit in the Mediterranean city of Sirte, his hometown.
He described Arab citizens as "revolutionaries who are always on the defensive," and advised his fellow leaders "to take decisions that match the expectations" of their people.
But when the emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani suggested that Arab leaders had achieved too little, Kadhafi said he didn't think his guest would do much better.
Then, taking a jab at the girth of his tall and heavy guest, he said the Qatari leader was "better than me at filling a void," before bursting out in a laugh.
In September, Kadhafi defied orders at the UN General Assembly to speak for 15 minutes, and went on for more than 90 minutes.
His rambling speech tried the patience of many UN delegates and caused the literal collapse of an interpreter. Seventy-five minutes into the diatribe, the translator threw in the towel, crying "I just can't take it anymore."
Kadhafi, the longest serving Arab leader, was born in a bedouin tent in the desert near Sirte in 1942, and has a reputation of never mincing his words and of riling Western and Arabic leaders alike with provocative statements.
Thirteen heads of state answered his invitation to attend the summit which is expected to focus on a common strategy against Israel's controversial settlement policy in annexed east Jerusalem.
Among those absent are regional powerbroker King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia who was insulted by Kadhafi at last year's summit in Qatar.
"It has been six years since you have been avoiding a confrontation with me," Kadhafi snapped at Abdullah at last year's summit, just as summit host Sheikh Hamad was ending his speech.
"You are always lying and you're facing the grave and you were made by Britain and protected by the United States," Kadhafi told Abdullah in front of 15 other leaders attending the annual gathering.
"I am the leader of the Arab leaders, the king of kings of Africa and the imam of the Muslims," proclaimed Kadhafi, the Arab world's longest serving leader who has been in power since 1969.
At an Arab summit in 1988 he wore a white glove on his right hand to avoid shaking "bloodstained hands," and the following year he blew smoke from a fat cigar into the face of the late king Fahd of Saudi Arabia.
At the 2005 Arab summit in Algiers he upstaged the final session with an unscheduled address in which he described Israel and the Palestinians as "idiots," leaving his audience in fits of laughter.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
