August 27, 2011 (Al Jazeera)
August 27, 2011 (Al Jazeera)
The Arab League has restored Libya’s membership in the bloc, turning over the country’s seat to the National Transitional Council (NTC), the rebels’ political leadership.
The 22-member League suspended the country’s membership in February in protest to Muammar Gaddafi’s crackdown on demonstrators.
At a Saturday League session, Mahmoud Jibril, seen as the foreign minister of the National Transitional Council led the Libyan delegation in the meeting.
He urged the Arabs to help rebuild and stabilise his country and asked the League to help in unfreezing Libyan assets abroad.
Call for unfreezing the funds
In a statement issued early on Sunday, called on “the UN and countries concerned” to “unfreeze the assets and property” of Libya.
The ministers “call on the Security Council and the countries concerned to assume their responsibilities in these difficult circumstances that the Libyan people are undergoing by rescinding the decision to block the funds, assets and property of the Libyan state,” the statement said.
They also called on the UN “to permit the National Transitional Council to occupy the seat of Libya in the United Nations and its various organisations.”
The NTC seeks authorisation from the United Nation’s security council to unfreeze more assets abroad, after it enforced the sanctions earlier this year.
On Thursday, the UN Sanctions Committee on Libya unfroze $1.5 billion for humanitarian aid, but that amount is just a fraction of what has been frozen.
Outside the Arab League building in Cairo, a man replaced Gaddafi’s green flag with the rebels’ flag beside the other members’ flags.
