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New #Libya'n Leaders Face ‘Difficult’ Fight for Unity After #Gaddafi Ouster - Bloombergbloom.bg/oHt8f2
Libya’s transitional prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, called for national reconciliation and unity, saying they may be “more difficult” to achieve than the fight that toppled Muammar Qaddafi’s regime.
“There are two battles,” Jibril said after arriving in Tripoli two and a half weeks after opposition fighters entered the capital. Achieving unity will be “our biggest challenge,” he said.
“The first battle is against Qaddafi and his regime,” Jibril said at a news conference yesterday. “This will end by the capturing or the elimination of Qaddafi. However, the battle that is more difficult is against ourselves. How can we achieve reconciliation and achieve peace and security and agree on a constitution? We must not attack each other or push each other away.”
While Libya has been able to export little oil during the conflict, a 600,000-barrel crude shipment is being offered from the western port of Mellitah, according to three people with direct knowledge of the transaction.
In Washington, President Barack Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, said yesterday that the U.S. is working “very closely” with Libya’s transitional government to secure stockpiles of weapons, such as shoulder- fired anti-aircraft missiles.
“We are concerned about the potential for certain weapons to get into the hands of terrorists,” Brennan told reporters at a roundtable organized by the Christian Science Monitor in Washington.
Qaddafi Loyalists
The transitional leadership has been unable to proclaim a full victory because of their inability to find Qaddafi and enter the few remaining towns that are home to some still loyal to him.
Jibril’s comments draw attention to the long-standing tensions between western Libya, Qaddafi’s heartland, and eastern Libya, where years of simmering unrest fueled by political and economic resentments spawned the current uprising. In addition, the rebel coalition that has been bound together by hatred of a shared foe will be tested as leaders jockey for power and resources.
Some anti-Qaddafi fighters in units from coastal Misrata and from the Nafusa mountains accuse the transitional leadership of excluding them from the newly formed Military Council that is in charge of opposition military operations.
Mohammed Salem, a rebel fighter from the Nafusa mountains, who was part of the security detail for Jibril’s press conference, objected to what he said was employment of former Qaddafi soldiers for security duties.
“Maybe we need a new revolution,” he said.
Surrender Deadline
Earlier in the day, Libyan broadcast media reported that up to 10 grad rockets were fired by Qaddafi loyalist forces from the town of Beni Walid, 140 kilometers (90 miles) southeast of Tripoli, toward rebel fighters dug in around the town.
The NTC has called on the town this week to surrender to rebel forces. NTC president Mustafa Abdel Jalil set a one-week deadline ending Sept. 10 for pro-Qaddafi forces to surrender control of Sirte, 400 kilometers east of Tripoli, the last coastal city still in the hands of the former regime.
The NTC is pursuing negotiations for the surrender of towns held by forces loyal to Qaddafi in order to avoid more bloodshed, said the council’s U.K. coordinator, Guma el-Gamaty.
Avoiding Bloodshed
The council is in talks with tribal elders for its forces to peacefully enter Sirte, Qaddafi’s hometown, and the loyalist- held towns of Bani Walid and Sabha, the site of a major military base south of the capital.
“The hitch is that the freedom fighters are keen not to shed any more blood,” el-Gamaty said yesterday in an interview on Bloomberg Television in London. “The stalemate will not go on forever” and a “line will be drawn very soon,” he said.
Council forces Sept. 7 claimed control of the town of Waddan, 225 kilometers south of Sirte. The area around Waddan has been the focus of bombing by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which said 20 targets have been destroyed around the nearby town of Hun since Sept. 2.
More than six months of fighting to end Qaddafi’s 42-year rule have reduced oil output and disrupted power supplies in the country with Africa’s largest crude reserves. The petroleum industry’s infrastructure is mainly intact, el-Gamaty said.
Oil Plans
An 80,000 metric-ton cargo of Libyan crude is being offered for shipment from Mellitah this month, according to the three people with direct knowledge of the transaction.
The oil, equal to about 600,000 barrels, will be loaded from Sept. 15 to 17, the people said, declining to be identified because the consignment has not been publicly announced.
Libya resumed operations at its 120,000 barrel-a-day Zawiyah refinery near Tripoli about two weeks ago, el-Gamaty said. The plant is processing 30,000 barrels a day and will reach full capacity in six to eight weeks, he said. The eastern crude export facility in Tobruk is undamaged, he said.
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked Interpol to issue a so-called red notice to arrest Qaddafi for the alleged crimes against humanity of murder and persecution, the ICC said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
To contact the reporters on this story: Christopher Stephen at cstephen9@bloomberg.net; Massoud A. Derhally in Beirut, Lebanon at mderhally@bloomberg.net
