Italy to provide monetary aid for Libyan rebels

 

 

The Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini has announced that Italy would provide Libya’s rebels with up to 400 million Euros of cash and fuel aid backed by frozen Libyan assets.

Frattini was speaking at a meeting of Western and Arab countries aimed at backing the rebels against Muammar Gaddafi and preparing for a post-Gaddafi government.

 In an interview with the reporters, the minister said: "Italy is committed to provide an amount of money, about 300 to 400 million Euros in cash and fuel, about 150 million Euros in fuel, by using a soft loan procedure guaranteed by the frozen assets. We have frozen, only in Italy, about $8 billion of Libyan assets that are not belonging to the regime, that are...for the Libyan people."

Rebels eye oil production

 The aid pledge came in the wake of the declaration by the rebel leadership of their intention to restart oil production.

This declaration came as Western powers implored them to plan for steps to take after Gaddafi's fall from power.

Rebel Oil and Finance Minister, Ali Tarhouni said on Thursday, that the Benghazi-based leadership hoped to restart production of up to 100,000 barrels a day "soon", without specifying a timeframe, and called for more aid, immediately.

"It is a failure if there is no clear financial commitment to it. Our people are dying ... So, my message to our friends is that I hope they walk the talk," he said.

A US senior official aboard the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton’s plane said on Wednesday:"The international community is beginning to talk about what could constitute end-game to this."  That would obviously include some kind of ceasefire arrangement and some kind of political process ... and of course the question of Gaddafi and perhaps his family is also a key part of that.”

In Washington, a group of leading Senate Democrats and Republicans said they were sponsoring a bill under which President Obama could use frozen Libyan government assets to pay for humanitarian aid to Libyan people caught up in the conflict.

"The ongoing violence in Libya has ... left far too many innocent Libyan citizens struggling to simply put food on the table," Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson said in a joint statement with the committee of senior Republican, Richard Shelby.

US officials on Wednesday also announced delivery of the TNC's first US oil sale, part of a broader strategy they hope will get money flowing to the cash starved group.

Deadlocks

Gaddafi troops and the rebels have been deadlocked for weeks, with neither side able to hold territory on a road between Ajdabiyah in the east, which Gaddafi forces shelled on Monday, and the Gaddafi-held oil town of Brega which is further west.

More attacks

NATO air strikes resumed in Tripoli on Wednesday night after a lull that followed the heaviest day of bombings since March, with new blasts shaking the capital on Thursday morning.

 NATO pounded Tripoli from the air, and Western and Arab nations met the rebels in Abu Dhabi to focus on what one US official called the "end-game" for the Libyan leader.   

 

 

REUTERS/Shakira/Ekata