Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi's call for a holy war against Switzerland because of its referendum decision to ban minarets is "unusual" and badly-timed, a European Union spokesman said Friday, DPA reported.
Gaddafi's call heightens a row between Switzerland and Libya which started with Swiss police investigating claims that Gaddafi's son had abused Swiss hotel staff and which has led the two sides to blacklist a number of one another's citizens.
Lutz Guellner, spokesman to the EU's foreign-policy director, Catherine Ashton, said that "if these reports are correct, these are quite unusual comments to be made in diplomatic terms."
Gaddafi's outburst comes "at an unfortunate moment, when the EU is working closely with Switzerland with a view to finding a diplomatic solution to the ongoing issue," Guellner said.
Switzerland has blacklisted 180 Libyan officials as part of the row. That means that they cannot travel anywhere in the Schengen zone, to which Switzerland and most EU member states belong - bringing the EU into the debate.
Italy, a major Libyan trading partner, has criticized Switzerland's stance. Other EU member states have been less vocal, simply urging the two sides to solve the row.
Gaddafi's "unusual" jihad call "unfortunate", EU says
