2007年VOA标准英语-France Confirms Agreement to Sell Arms to Libya
时间：2019-01-31 作者：英语课 分类：2007年VOA标准英语（八月）
Paris
03 August 2007
France and Libya have agreed to their first arms deal since the European Union lifted an arms embargo 1 on Libya in 2004. The deal comes after the release last week of six medical workers who Libya accused of intentionally 2 infecting Libyan children with the AIDS virus. As Anita Elash reports for VOA from Paris, French opposition 3 parties say they want proof that the arms sale was not part of a release package.
The Bulgarian nurses and medic pose in front of the French presidential plane after their arrival at the Sofia airport, 24 July 2007
Libya has long been isolated 4 from the international community, so for leader Moammar Gadhafi, the deal with France is proof that he is being welcomed back onto the world stage. It comes after the six medical workers were released last week and flown to Bulgaria and a subsequent visit to Libya by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. During that visit, Mr. Sarkozy and Mr. Gadhafi signed an agreement for Paris to provide a nuclear reactor 5 to Libya that would turn seawater into drinking water.
Details of the arms deal began to emerge this week, when Mr. Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, told a French newspaper it was part of the agreement to free the medical workers.
French Defense 6 Minister Herve Morin confirmed the deal on Friday morning. He said Libya has agreed to contracts worth $405 million including the purchase of communications equipment and medium-range anti-tank missiles from subsidiaries of the European Aerospace 7 and Defense firm EADS. The minister denied that the deal has anything to do with the medical workers. He said an interministerial committee approved it in February.
He says the deal was not speeded up and that the discussion had been going on for years.
French opposition parties are demanding a parliamentary inquiry 8 into the deal. Socialist 9 Party leader Francois Hollande said he wants proof that the arms deal is unrelated to the release of the medical workers, who say they were tortured into making confessions 10 in Libya.
He says he wants a parliamentary commission that can clarify whether the deal was the result of a normal business negotiation 11, or whether it was part of a negotiation with a country that held the medical workers for eight years and tried to use them as pawns 12.
The French government has not responded to Hollande's demand. Parliament has closed for the summer, and Mr. Sarkozy is in the United States on holiday.
- This country put an oil embargo on an enemy country.该国对敌国实行石油禁运。
- During the war,they laid an embargo on commerce with enemy countries.在战争期间，他们禁止与敌国通商。
- I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
- The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。
- The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
- The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。
- His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
- Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。
- The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
- Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。
- The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
- The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。
- The world's entire aerospace industry is feeling the chill winds of recession.全世界的航空航天工业都感受到了经济衰退的寒意。
- Edward Murphy was an aerospace engineer for the US Army.爱德华·墨菲是一名美军的航宇工程师。
- Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
- The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。
- China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
- His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。
- It is strictly forbidden to obtain confessions and to give them credence. 严禁逼供信。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
- Neither trickery nor coercion is used to secure confessions. 既不诱供也不逼供。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
- They closed the deal in sugar after a week of negotiation.经过一星期的谈判，他们的食糖生意成交了。
- The negotiation dragged on until July.谈判一直拖到7月份。