Libya imposes economic embargo on Switzerland

Libya has decided to impose a "total" economic embargo on Switzerland, government spokesman Mohammed Baayou said on Wednesday, after Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi declared holy war on Bern.

"Libya has decided to impose a total embargo on all economic and commercial exchanges with Switzerland," Baayou said.

The country will "adopt alternative (sources) for medicines and medical and industrial equipment" imported from Switzerland, he added.

The announcement comes just hours after Libya protested against a U.S. State Department official poking fun at Ghaddafi after he called for jihad against Switzerland in an ongoing diplomatic spat with that country.

Last Thursday, Ghaddafi made the call over a recent Swiss ban on the construction of minarets.

"It is against unbelieving and apostate Switzerland that jihad (holy war) ought to be proclaimed by all means," Ghaddafi said.

"Any Muslim around the world who has dealings with Switzerland is an infidel (and is) against Islam, against Mohammed, against God, against the Quran," he told a crowd of thousands in a speech broadcast live on television.

"Boycott Switzerland: boycott its goods, boycott its airplanes, its ships, its embassies; boycott this unbelieving, apostate race, aggressor against the houses of Allah," he added.

His jihad call marked a new low in Libyan-Swiss relations, which soured in 2008 when Ghaddafi’s son Hannibal and his wife were arrested and briefly held in Geneva after two domestic workers complained they had mistreated them.

The row worsened when Libya swiftly stopped two Swiss businessmen, Rashid Hamdani and Max Goeldi, from leaving its territory.

Any Muslim around the world who has dealings with Switzerland is an infidel (and is) against Islam, against Mohammed, against God, against the Quran

President Muammar Ghaddafi

Demanding an apology

On Wednesday, the Libyan foreign ministry called in the U.S. charge d'affaires demanding "explanations and apologies" over the reaction by State Department spokesman Philip Crowley, the official JANA news agency said.

It added that there would be "negative repercussions on economic and political relations between the two countries if no measures are adopted."

The day after Ghaddafi’s call, Crowley said: "I saw that (jihad) report and it just brought me back to the day of September, one of the more memorable sessions of the U.N. General Assembly that I can recall.

"Lots of words and lots of papers flying all over the place and not necessarily a lot of sense," Crowley said.

Ghaddafi berated Western powers in a lengthy U.N. diatribe, accusing the global body of failing to prevent millions of deaths as he demanded trillions of dollars in colonial reparations.

U.S. energy companies including Exxon Mobil, Occidental and Hess have invested heavily in Libya, home to Africa's largest proven oil reserves, since the country emerged from decades of international isolation.

I saw that jihad report and it just brought me back to the day of September, one of the more memorable sessions of the U.N. General Assembly that I can recall

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley