Libya: NTC Asks NATO to Extend Stay
Tripoli---Head of Libya’s interim National Transitional Council (NTC) has urged NATO to stay involved in Libya until end of this year to prevent loyalists of former leader Muammar Gaddafi from leaving the country.
Speaking during a meeting with the military alliance in the Qatari capital of Doha on Wednesday, interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said that stopping the flight of Col Gaddafi supporters to other countries was a priority.
“We look forward to NATO continuing its operations until the end of the year,” Jalil told reporters. “We seek technical and logistics help from neighbouring and friendly countries.”
NATO was instrumental in enforcing the UN Security Council resolution that sought to protect civilians under threat from Col Gaddafi’s forces. NATO has carried out over 26,000 air raids since start of the campaign in March 31, destroying over 5,900 military installations.
The Doha meeting was focusing on how NATO could help the provisional government to bring stability in the country after NATO hinted on Friday that it would wind up its campaign at the end of this month.
A meeting scheduled in Brussels on Wednesday to formalize the decision has been postponed to accommodate ongoing Doha Talks with the UN and NTC.
Qatar was one of the first countries to recognise the NTC as Libya’s legitimate authorities, providing it with support during months of fighting against Gaddafi’s loyalist forces. On Wednesday Qatari military chief revealed that the country had military personnel on the ground in Libya.
“We were among them and the numbers of Qataris on the ground were hundreds in every region," major General Hamad bin Ali Al-Atiya, Qatar’s military chief of staff said.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has also said his country provided military aid to NTC during the revolutionary fighting. In his address on state TV, Bashir said Sudan’s move was in response to Col Gaddafi’s support for Sudanese rebels three years ago.
“The forces which entered Tripoli, part of their arms and capabilities, were 100 per cent Sudanese,” he said.
The Libyan authorities declared the country’s liberation on Sunday, two days after Col Gaddafi had been killed during battle for Sirte, one of his two remaining bastions following fall of Tripoli to the rebels in August.
Gaddafi was buried in unmarked grave in a secret location in the desert on Tuesday with that of his son Mutassim and his army chief Abu Baker Younis killed alongside the ousted leader last Thursday.
Tunis, Tunisia
Islamist Party Ready to Form Government
Tunisia’s moderate Islamist party Ennahda has begun talks to form a coalition government with centre-left parties ahead of announcement of official results in the country’s landmark election.
Preliminary results from the Sunday’s legislative election have put the party formerly banned under the ousted regime in a commanding lead, but still unclear whether it would achieve an outright majority.
By Tuesday Ennahda had won 37 of the total 217 assembly seats against 13 seats of its closest contender, the secularist congress for the republic (CPR). The assembly will be tasked with writing a new constitution among other major reforms that motivated the popular uprising last December that deposed President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali from power, sparking off the Arab spring.
The party said on Tuesday that it wanted to share power but would not seek to push through radical measures. Party leader Rachid Ghannouchi has vowed not to set up an Islamist state but respect multi-party democracy.
Hamadi Jebali Ennahda’s Secretary General and possible Prime Minister has assured secularists and investors that no prospects of religion would be instilled in the country’s tourism and banking sector.
Tunisia, which largely depends on foreign tourism, has a long secular tradition history, viewed as the most secular nation in the Arab world.
The CPR, biggest secular party in the country has defended its union with Ennahda saying it’s a moderate part of Islam. CPR leader Moncef Marzouki said “One must not take them for the Taliban of Tunisia.”
“No, no, no it is not the devil and we do not make pacts with the devil,” he said.
Ghnnouchi has assured Tunisians against unwarranted fears over imposing strict Islamic ethical codes in the country, but instead focus on a quite moderate platform of economic and internal security reforms modeled on Turkey’s Islamic model which remains secular.
Ben Ali was forced to resign and flee to Saudi Arabia following weeks of demonstrations in protest against poverty, oppression and extensive corruption that accustomed his 23 years of rule.