'I just can't take it any more'... Gaddafi's translator 'collapsed with exhaustion' during his UN rant



Colonel Gaddafi's bizarre rant at the UN was met with yawns and disbelief by delegates.

But it was too much for the eccentric Libyan leader's translator who is said to have collapsed with exhaustion during the lengthy diatribe.

The beleaguered interpreter cried 'I just can’t take it any more,' into a live microphone in Arabic after 75 minutes of Gaddafi's ramblings.

He was replaced by the UN’s Arabic section chief, Rasha Ajalyaqeen, who translated the final 20 minutes of the speech.



Rant: An interpreter translating Colonel Gaddafi's rambling speech at the UN is said to have collapsed with exhaustion

'His interpreter just collapsed – this is the first time I have seen this in 25 years,' a UN Arabic interpreter told The New York Post.

Gaddafi broke protocol and brought his own interpreters from Tripoli for Wednesday’s speech rather than using one of the 25 Arabic translators supplied by the United Nations, staff interpreters said.

Before his one hour and 36 minute long speech he told the U.N. that he was supplying his own French and English interpreters because he would be speaking a special dialect only they would understand, but staff interpreters said he actually spoke standard Arabic.

'This is the best team in the world – most heads of state prefer to use U.N. interpreters because then – no matter what happens – they can blame the interpreter,' another staffer told the paper.



In his rant Gaddafi - who has not visited the UN since he took power in 1969 - read from a yellow folder of handwritten notes and spoke about Israel, the Taliban, swine flu and the US invasion of Grenada.

He also suggested the Security Council be renamed the 'terror council' castigating it for failing to stop 65 wars since 1945.



Another Arabic interpreter emphasised with the translator's exasperation.



'He’s not exactly the most lucid speaker.

'It’s not just that what he’s saying is illogical, but the way he’s saying it is bizarre. However, I think I could have made him sound a lot better.'



UN speakers are supposed to limit themselves to 15 minutes and the chamber was half empty by the time Gaddafi finished.



His speech wasn't as long as Fidel Castro's in 1960 which went on for four and a half hours.



Indian politician VK Krishna Menon also went on in 1957 when he talked for a nearly eight hours on Kashmir.

