Algeria rejects Libyan request to help lift sanctions

ALGIERS, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Algeria has rejected the demand from the Libyan Foreign Minister Musa Kusa to ask Algiers to lead an individual initiative at the United Nations Council of Security to help lift international sanctions on Libya.

Algeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs Mourad Medelci said in an interview with El Khabar newspaper published on Thursday that "My Libyan counterpart (Musa Kusa) delivered a message to me... He asked Algeria to lead an initiative to the Security Council to retract some of its sanctions recently imposed" on the government of Muamar Gaddafi.

"Our vision is that we prefer that the issue should be dealt by the Council of Security through an Arab initiative, rather than through a lone country (Algeria)," Medelci added.

In this respect, the head of the Algerian diplomacy said: "the urgent meeting of Arab Foreign Ministers next Saturday in Cairo will permit us to draw up measures and steps that would be shaped in a sort of plan of action."

Concerning whether Algeria would support any of the disputing parties in Libya, Medelci stressed that "our priority in Libya right now is to restore security and stability before talking about bilateral cooperation," pointing out that "politically speaking, Algeria holds relationships with the states rather than with regimes."

He further specified that "We do respect the choice of people, and we don't intervene in that," adding: "We would be ready to cooperate with governments chosen by Tunisians, Egyptians and Libyans, once stability returns there."

The United Nations and European Union have slapped sanctions on Libya, imposing an arms embargo, travel bans and asset freezes on Gaddafi and his family.

It referred Libya's crackdown on anti-government demonstrators to the International Criminal Court, while reports said the U.N. Security Council had discussed a no-fly zone proposal pushed by European heavyweights Britain and France.

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-03/11/c_13771570.htm.