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Libyan PM Calls on Foreign Technical Help to Restore Security

Libyan PM Calls on Foreign Technical Help to Restore Security
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Τρι, 17 Σεπτεμβρίου 2013 - 18:19
Shut down oil production in Libya will soon resume, but Libya's internal security situation won't improve unless it receives technical support from the international community, the country's prime minister said Tuesday.
Shut down oil production in Libya will soon resume, but Libya 's internal security situation won't improve unless it receives technical support from the international community, the country's prime minister said Tuesday.

In a rare public appearance in Europe , Ali Zeidan said Libya was setting up 10 training camps and had sought help from Germany , the U.S. and France . But he said Libya needed additional foreign assistance to train the country's fledgling security forces and to collect weapons and ammunition that were lost following the civil war that toppled strongman Moammar Gadhafi two years ago.

"The situation is not going to improve unless we get practical assistance from the international community," Mr. Zeidan, told the Libya FDI conference in London .

Though the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has considered a broad mission to train Libyan security forces, only a few countries--such as Turkey --have undertaken such effort so far.

Mr. Zeidan is due to meet his U.K. counterpart David Cameron later Tuesday,

Since taking over last fall, Prime Minister Zeidan has faced a deteriorating security situation, culminating with the closures of most terminals by armed strikers and the shut down of two third of the country's oil production this summer.

Mr. Zeidan said that his government was getting close to an agreement with the strikers.

"In the coming days, we are going to work on solving this problem," he said. "Oil production will resume, it will not take long," Mr. Zeidan said, citing the resumption Monday of Libya's largest oil field, the Repsol SA-operated Sharara.

But Mr. Zeidan said that Libya would still face the broader threat of terrorism after Mr. Gadhafi's 42-year rule systematically undermined state institutions.

"Forty years of destruction requires time," Mr. Zeidan said. But "the state is under threat from terrorism," he also said.

The 2012 killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya , Chris Stevens, and lower levels attacks this year have revived fears al-Qaeda could be gaining a solid foothold in the North African nation.

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