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Update 17 March  Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Libya is offering a public relations lesson in how to stay in the news, with measures unveiled almost daily for the past two weeks, to increase pressure on Switzerland to resolve the two countries’ diplomatic feud. By Friday 12 March Google alone was carrying 49.5 million entries with “Libya, Switzerland”.

Update: Tuesday 16 March Libyan Ambassador to Spain Ageli Abdussalam Breni demanded that the European Union apologize for not approving visas to Libyans on the Swiss black list.

The latest came Thursday 11 March when the Libyan ambassador to the UN in Geneva again called for Switzerland to end its ban on a number of its leaders entering the Schengen area. The previous day Libya’s ambassador to the UN in New York made a similar speech. Both events have received enormous international media coverage with headlines about rising tensions, although neither of the men’s calls contained anything new.

Libyan ambassadors have also called in the press in other European countries to argue Libya’s stance. And shortly before that Libya threatened the US if an official did not apologize for a remark taken as offensive (he did).

Less than a week before that Muammar Qadaffi called for a “jihad” or holy war on Switzerland and two days later his staff explained that it was a reference to an economic boycott. All were well covered by international media.

Ambassador Ibrahim Aldredi in Geneva Thursday also accused Switzerland of refusing to enter into negotiations, not for the first time, a charge that Lars Knuchel, spokesperson for the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs immediately rejected. He pointed out that Switzerland is actively working closely with Spain, president of the European Commission, and with other European countries, to resolve the issues with Libya.

At the top of the list for Switzerland is the imprisonment of Max Goeldi, Swiss businessman, in Tripoli, but Swiss television TSR Thursday evening published a report saying at least 50 more workers of Swiss companies, not of Swiss nationality, were arrested by Libya in the days following the arrest in Geneva of Hannibal Qadaffi, son of the leader. The news has not come out before because of fear of reprisals, according to TSR.

Aldredi told TSR television news that Goeldi’s case must make its way through the Libyan criminal justice system, “which is very independent”. It is unclear if he meant to draw a parallel with remarks by Geneva authorities to explain why an investigation into a leak has taken so long: a police mug shot of Hanniba Qadaffi was leaked to the Tribune de Geneve, which ran it. The photo has been a key source of friction for Libya.

Links to other sources (a sampling of the coverage): AP, TSR, (Fre), Yahoo news