Paris Conference: 60 leaders supporting free Libya

George Haddad
Friday, 02 September 2011

Global Arab Network - World leaders lined up behind Libya’s new de facto administration and a U.N.-led effort to stabilize the country after decades under Moammar Gadhafi’s rule.

But the struggle for Libya’s future is not over and NATO’s military operation will continue as long as needed to protect civilians, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said.

Leaders and envoys from 60 nations and world bodies such as the United Nations and NATO met in Paris for talks with Libya’s rebel-led National Transitional Council to map out Libya’s future after Gadhafi’s ouster.

“We cannot afford a failed pariah state on Europe’s borders,” Cameron said. “We will all lose if the Arab Spring gives way to a cynical winter of repression.”

There were also warnings about Libya’s continued instability, its tribal tensions and ravaged infrastructure.

Libyans at Thursday’s meeting “stressed the point that there is no cease-fire, that there is still a military threat from Gadhafi. They also expressed concern about the (possible) use of chemical weapons,” Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said.

A second delegation also confirmed that Libyan envoys had raised at the meeting their fears that Gadhafi loyalists may have access to chemical weapons. However, Western government arms experts believe that loyalists forces no longer have the hardware to deploy the weapons, after repeated NATO-led airstrikes on military targets.

The group also agreed to try to release billions in frozen assets linked to Gadhafi in banks around the world, Sarkozy said. The United Nations has already unblocked $6 billion from banks in the U.S., Britain and France.

“We are committed to returning to the Libyans the monies of yesterday for the building of tomorrow,” he said.

The leaders insisted on the need for Libyans themselves to lead the way forward and to avoid the lessons learned in Iraq, where the fall of Saddam Hussein was followed by years of sectarian violence.

Source: Global Arab Network.
Link: http://www.english.globalarabnetwork.com/2011090211844/Economics/paris-conference-60-leaders-supporting-free-libya.html.