There are indications that the United Nations (UN) Security Council may freeze all the assets of Libya as crisis continues to rock the Arab country under the rule of its controversial leader, Colonel Muammar Ghaddafi.
The indications are emerging as the UN and its diplomatic partners seeking a resolution to the Libyan crisis have urged the Security Council to release assets frozen under the UN sanctions to the country’s transitional authorities to help them set up a government in the North African nation.
“We have decided to start a process to unfreeze the frozen Libyan assets in an expedited manner,” members of the Libya Contact Group said in their final communiqué after a meeting in Istanbul, Turkey. “In that regard, participants urged the UN Security Council to pass the resolution currently under discussion,” they said.
The Contact Group urged Colonel Muammar Qadhafi and his “inner circle” to turn themselves in immediately to face justice to prevent further bloodshed and destruction of property. Media reports indicate that forces supporting the National Transitional Council (NTC) have taken control of most of the country.
Members of the Group – the UN, European Union, NATO, the League of Arab States, Organization of the Islamic Cooperation, Gulf Cooperation Council, and, by invitation, the African Union – declared that the NTC was, currently, the sole representative of the Libya people.
“While expressing satisfaction for the ever ever-widening international recognition of the NTC, they underlined the need to empower the NTC with the legal, political and financial means necessary to form an interim government of Libya,” members of the Group said in their communiqué.
They stressed that the reconciliation process in Libya should be based on the principles of inclusiveness and avoidance of retribution and vengeance and welcomed NTC’s commitment to “win hearts and minds of the entire Libyan people and respect for human rights.”