Muammar Gaddafi’s eldest son Saif al-Islam

Rabat, Dec. 22 (Reuters): When Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi wants to send a message to the world, he often chooses his son as messenger in an apparent bid to groom him for succession.

This was again the case with the surprise announcement at the weekend that Libya was scrapping its weapons of mass destruction.

It was Saif al-Islam who put in simple words what the decision meant, going further than the North African country’s foreign minister, who read the official statement in Tripoli, or the Prime Minister, who gave interviews to the BBC.

“It will pave the way for the normalisation of political relations with the (United) States and with the West in general and also will lead to the elimination of any threat against Libya from the West and from the States in particular,” he told CNN.

An architect, business school graduate and now studying global governance at the prestigious London School of Economics, Saif, 31, is Gaddafi’s oldest son from his second marriage.

His official role is as head of the Gaddafi Foundation Charity, which funds development projects around the world.

The charity has been instrumental in negotiating a $2.7 billion deal over the 1988 bombing of a US airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland.

The compensation deal opened the way for the lifting of UN sanctions against Libya in September.

Saif, whose name means Sword of Islam, first came to international attention in 2000 when he helped negotiate the release of European and South African hostages held by Islamic rebels in the Philippines.

His increasingly high profile at home and abroad has fuelled speculation that his father, who is in his early 60s and has been in power for 34 years, was grooming him as heir-apparent.

Tall, elegant, with a shaved head and sporting small, oval, wire-rimmed glasses, the younger Gaddafi favours designer suits and jeans, in contrast to his father’s flowing African robes. The difference goes beyond appearance.

While his often quixotic father is prone to rambling speeches and antagonistic rhetoric, Saif is suave, usually gives short, precise answers to journalists, and is fluent in English, French and German.

But in recent interviews with Western media, he dismissed reports he was being groomed to succeed his father as “western journalists making stories”.