FOCUS LIBYA: Frattini in Benghazi, memorandum of understanding with the TNC
ROME, Italy, May 31, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Italy is stepping up its support for the Libyan Transitional National Council (TNC). Foreign Minister Franco Frattini flew to Benghazi this morning to meet opposition representatives and to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) worth hundreds of millions of euros. The MOU will draw on frozen Libyan assets in Italy.
“ENI and Unicredit have pledged to help meet the needs of the Libyan people through the TNC by providing an enormous amount of petrol and an enormous sum of money. Hundreds of millions of euros, which the population needs”. Foreign Minister Frattini made the announcement during a press conference with the Deputy leader of the TNC, Ali Al Isawi, after his meeting with the head of the Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil. The operations in question, explained Frattini, will be secured by the Libyan assets frozen in Italy.
Describing the agreement in more detail, the Minister explained that “the export credit operations will be secured through SACE. In Italy we have significant assets that were frozen after the sanctions were imposed on the Gaddafi regime. We’re talking about billions of euros: money that doesn’t belong to the regime but to the Libyan people. These frozen assets will act as collateral for these money transfers to the Libyan people”.
In the memorandum signed by Frattini and Abdul Jalil, Italy and the TNC undertake to put in place the necessary conditions for the supply of refined and crude oil products. They will also ensure monitoring, controls and checks of the security and operational condition of oil installations and other energy infrastructure. Lastly, Italy and the TNC have undertaken to put in place, along with public and private operators, the necessary conditions for credit lines designed to assist the population and relaunch economic activity.
“The next step”, added Minister Frattini, “will be the Contact Group meeting in Abu Dhabi on 9 June, to take concrete steps to unfreeze the Gaddafi regime’s assets” on behalf of the Libyan people. “We are working to this end with the UN’s Sanctions Commission to resolve a number of legal issues”, he explained.
Minister Frattini’s visit to Benghazi, during which the Italian Consulate was opened, follows those of the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton, and the Polish Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski.
In Rome yesterday (30 May 2011), the former Libyan Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the United Nations, Abdel Rahamn Shalgam, presented the eight senior officers who fled Tripoli last Friday (27 May) with the help of Italian intelligence. “A total of 120 soldiers and officers have now left Libya”, he announced. One of the eight officers said the regime “is now left with no more than 20% of its military capacity”. Gaddafi can now count on just “a few hundred soldiers, while the number of generals can be counted in just dozens”. All telecommunications between the government forces are down, he added.
SOURCE
Italy – Ministry of Foreign Affairs
