Libya Archives

#Egyptian, #Saudi businessmen gear up for #Iraq, Syria, Libya reconstruction “No Turks Please”

February 4, 2018 by administrator

Iraqi Minister of Planning Salman al-Jumaili said Iraq’s reconstruction will cost at least $100 billion

Cairo (Iraqinews.com) – A group of Egyptian and Saudi investors are gearing up to play a more active role in reconstructing Iraq, Libya, and Syria in the coming period by pumping huge investments into the two countries, according to Russia Today TV channel on Sunday.

The initiative came in cooperation between the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FEDCOC), the Council of Saudi Chambers and the Egyptian-Saudi Business Council.

FEDCOC Chairman Ahmed el Wakil said Cairo and Riyadh have reached a deal to keep on promoting economic cooperation between the two countries and making use of their economic potentials to reconstruct Iraq, Libya and Syria.

“Later this year, two expanded meetings will be held in Libya and Syria to discuss means of supporting their economies,” Wakil said, adding that the gatherings will be attended by businessmen from several Arab countries.

Earlier in January, Iraqi Minister of Planning Salman al-Jumaili, in an interview with Al-Monitor from his office in Baghdad, said that his country will require a massive amount of funds to rebuild the areas liberated from Islamic State (IS) control.

While he noted that it was too early to reach a precise estimate, he estimated the amount would be around $100 billion, adding that this figure “includes all the areas that were damaged during the presence of IS, either by direct occupation or due to terrorist acts.”

Also, Kuwait is scheduled to host an international conference later this month for the reconstruction of Iraq.

Libya: Tribe demands country’s parliament to follow Armenians’ example lawsuit against Turkey

October 9, 2016 by administrator

A tribe in Libya demanded from the speaker of the country’s parliament to file a lawsuit against Turkey to the court of international tribunals, and for committing genocide against the elders and sheikhs of this tribe, 199 years ago, according to Akhbar Libya.

The representatives of this tribe demand from the Libyan parliament to follow the example of the Armenians, and file a complaint against Turkey for the genocide it committed in the 19th century, and which killed thousands of members of this tribe.

Turkey, the world’s Epicenter for smuggling Man, caught trying to sell Gadhafi’s dagger

June 13, 2016 by administrator

A businessman has been caught in Istanbul trying to sell a dagger looted from the palace of former Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi. He was trying to sell the dagger, which was made of ivory and garnished with gold, emeralds, diamonds, rubies and sapphires, for $10 million, Turkish daily Habertürk reported on June 13.

The businessman, identified as A.A., was caught by anti-smuggling police as he tried to sell the dagger to Saudi businessmen.

“Your exchange office should pay our exchange office $10 million. If the dagger is not authentic, then you can come and take your money from us,” A.A. told the police, who had disguised themselves as customers wanting to buy the dagger.

The police then began to track the businessman, who was a textile exporter from the southeastern province of Mardin, and started an operation after learning he was going to sell the dagger to his Saudi customers in a hotel in the Bakırköy district of Istanbul.

A.A., who left Istanbul’s Bahçeşehir district in one of three luxury cars, was stopped by the anti-smuggling police, who were disguised as traffic police. The cars were trying to reach Bakırköy separately from three different roads and the dagger was found in the trunk of one of the cars. The businessman and two others working with him were detained in the operation.

A.A. claimed he bought Gadhafi’s dagger from the opposition groups in Libya for $4.6 million.

The dagger was later sent to Turkey’s Chamber of Jewelers to prove its authenticity and the chamber concluded that the dagger was original. It was worth at least $2 million, according to the chamber.

Legal action was taken against the businessman for the ivory in the dagger, which violated the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and for smuggling.

Gadhafi’s dagger was seized on the grounds that it was a piece incompatible with CITES and was brought to Turkey illegally.

source: hurriyetdailynews

ISIS stole sarin gas from Libya stores & has already used it, Gaddafi’s cousin tells RT

December 19, 2015 by administrator

Islamic State militants have managed to steal chemical weapons from underground storage facilities in Libya that were not properly guarded and the gas has already been used, a cousin of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi told RT Arabic in an exclusive interview.

“ISIS has managed to find some of the secret underground storage facilities, still holding chemical weapons, hidden in the desert. Unfortunately, they weren’t properly guarded,” said Ahmed Gaddafi Al-Dam, a cousin of Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader who was killed in 2011.

Al-Dam, the stolen gas was then trafficked to the northern part of the country and sold.

“There are two known cases of this chemical agent being stolen. I know this from my sources in Tripoli. In the first case, seven drums of sarin were stolen, and in the second, I think it was five.”

Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS/ISIL) has already used chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria, according to numerous reports.

Earlier this month, Eren Erdem, a member of Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), told RT that IS terrorists in Syria had received all the necessary materials to produce deadly sarin gas via Turkey.

Source: RT

Libyan Prime Minister told Sputnik Qatar, Turkey to Blame for Forcing Political Islam in Libya

August 27, 2015 by administrator

Certain states aim to impose political Islam in Libya, Libyan Prime Minister told Sputnik in an interview. The country’s internationally recognized government is in need of arms to fight militants and seeks international airstrikes targeting the Islamic State extremist group.

OBRUK (Sputnik) – Qatar and Turkey are to blame for forcing political Islam on Libya, the prime minister of the internationally recognized Libyan government, Abdullah Thani, told Sputnik.

“There are states wishing to impose political Islam on us. Turkey and Qatar, for example, are attempting to impose it on Libya despite the people’s rejection,” Thani said.

That rejection was exemplified in the recent parliamentary elections, the prime minister added.

Thani acknowledged the willingness to cooperate with activists of political Islam as an integral part of the political landscape in the country.

“However, partnership does not imply hegemony, and not only in Libya. Qatar and Turkey have that experience in Egypt, where they strongly support the Muslim Brotherhood,” Thani stressed.

The internationally recognized Libyan government seeks international airstrikes targeting the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, not against political rivals, Prime Minister Abdullah Thani continued in an interview with Sputnik.The Arab League pledged military assistance during an extraordinary session requested by the internationally-recognized Tobruk-based government last week. The association ruled out targeted anti-IS airstrikes over Libyan territory.

“We asked for airstrikes on IS, not on our political rivals,” Thani clarified.

The prime minister argued for surgical strikes in coordination with the Libyan army because “all parties agree that IS must be stopped.”

The northeast port city of Tobruk government’s call for help came as Islamic State gained control over the northern Libyan city of Sirte, killing up to 200 people in mid-August.Libya is in need of arms to fight militants and does not consider foreign military assistance to be an encroachment on the sovereignty of the country, according to Abdullah Thani.

“We need weapons and ammunition… But we do not believe military assistance is akin to foreign interference,” Thani argued.

The prime minister said that a lack of weapons and an abundance of people willing to take up arms “creates an imbalance.”

“The international community helped us overthrow the [Gaddafi] regime, but did not help in building a new state,” Thani explained to Sputnik.

Libya has been in a state of civil war since the overthrow of longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and is now split into two rival governments. The Tobruk-based government led by Thani is recognized internationally. The country’s capital of Tripoli and adjacent western areas are controlled by self-proclaimed authorities.

On Wednesday,the UN envoy to Libya, Bernadino Leon, told the UN Security Council the rival Libyan authorities were in the “final stages” of forming a national unity government.

Source: http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20150827/1026251430.html#ixzz3k2Ajqwv7

Libya’s PM says Turkey supplying weapons to rival Tripoli group

February 27, 2015 by administrator

Abdullah al-Thinni (Photo: Reuters)

libya‘s internationally recognized Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni said his government would stop dealing with Turkey as it was sending weapons to a rival group in tripoli so “the Libyan people kill each other,” ramping up his rhetoric against ankara.

Two administrations, one in the capital and Thinni’s in the east, have been vying for power since an armed group called Libya Dawn seized Tripoli in July 2014 — four years after Muammar Gaddafi’s ousting — and reinstated lawmakers from a previous assembly.

“Turkey is a state that is not dealing honestly with us. It’s exporting weapons to us so the Libyan people kill each other,” he told Egyptian TV channel CBC late on Thursday.

A spokesman for Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly denied Thinni’s allegations. “Instead of repeating the same baseless and untrue allegations we advise them to support UN efforts for political dialog,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgiç told Reuters.

“Our policy in relation to Libya is very clear. We are against any external intervention in Libya and we fully support the ongoing political dialog process under UN mediation,” he added.

Thinni’s government said this week it would exclude companies from future deals, accusing Ankara of backing the Tripoli government and its allied armed groups. He repeated that Turkish firms would be excluded from contracts in territory controlled by his government in the CBC interview, noting that any outstanding bills would be paid. “We don’t say we are hostile to Turkey but we say we won’t deal with it,” he said.

Turkey is one of a handful of countries that has publicly received officials from the Tripoli government and parliament. Critics of Ankara say its Libya policy is an extension of a pro-Islamist agenda that has already seen relations sour with other former regional allies, notably Egypt.

Thinni also accused Qatar of giving “material” support to the rival side in the Libyan conflict. He did not elaborate.

Army general Khalifa Haftar, who merged his forces with the army in the east to fight Islamist militants, is seen as a potential rival to Thinni. While the alliance between the groups has enabled them to win back territory, Haftar has been criticized for air strikes on civilian airports and seaports.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for Thinni’s parliament said the assembly’s president would appoint Haftar as top army commander.

Libyan flights from Turkey, Jordan to make security stop in east

February 25, 2015 by administrator

CAIRO/BAYDA, Libya – Reuters

REUTERS Photo

Egypt is forcing Libyan airliners flying between Turkey and Jordan and the capital Tripoli to stop in eastern Libya to allow the country’s internationally recognized government to screen out potential Islamist fighters, officials said.

The move underscores Egypt’s engagement in Libya to bolster the weak official government, holed up in the east since it lost control of the capital, in its fight against Islamist militants exploiting the chaos that followed the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Egyptian jets bombed suspected Islamist militant targets in the eastern Libyan city of Derna last week after Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) released a video showing the execution of 21 Egyptian Copts.

Libya’s internationally recognized prime minister, Abdullah al-Thinni, accuses a rival government and parliament controlling Tripoli of having ties to radical Islamists, charges they deny.

Thinni is allied to Egypt.

ISIL militants have claimed attacks on foreign missions in Tripoli as well as a rocket strike on the eastern Labraq airport and a twin car suicide bombing in the eastern town of Qubbah, killing more than 40 people.

In a move to control air traffic to Libya, Egypt has said that flights in either direct between the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Misrata, and Turkey or Jordan, via Egyptian air space, must make a transit stop in eastern Libya, Libyan and Egyptian officials said.

Thinni told Reuters Egypt had closed its air space to planes serving western Libyan airports so that departure and passport procedures would be conducted by officials from his government in the east.

“The (air space) was closed for security reasons, to stop terrorists and weapons reaching Libya,” Thinni told Reuters in a written response to questions.

Flight route

An Egyptian aviation official confirmed the ban on flights serving Tripoli and Misrata, saying Cairo would only deal with airports held by the recognised government. The website of Tripoli’s Mitiga airport confirmed the changed flight route.

When Istanbul-bound planes operated by Libyan carriers touch down in Labraq or Tobruk, two small airports in the east, passengers must disembark for passport checks, witnesses said.

Libyan carriers flying to Turkey and Jordan must cross Egyptian airspace as they are banned from Greek or Greek Cypriot air space immediately to the north.

A Reuters reporter visiting Labraq airport saw officials checking identity cards of passengers arriving on Tripoli flights.

In an attempt to stop would-be fighters reaching war zones in Syria or Libya, Egypt has banned travel by Egyptians to Libya and requires young males travelling to Turkey to obtain a permit.

Cairo says it is to train Libyan forces loyal to Thinni and his government, which struggles to make an impact working out of hotels in the small eastern city of Bayda near Labraq airport.

Egypt, like most Arab and Western countries, has withdrawn its embassy staff from Tripoli but has set up a presence in Tobruk, where the elected House of Representatives is based.

The Tripoli government accuses army general Khalifa Haftar, allied to Thinni, of receiving military support from Egypt.

Haftar’s warplanes often attack forces loyal to Tripoli as part of his self-declared war against Islamists. Haftar denies receiving Egyptian support but analysts wonder how his outdated jets can fly almost daily missions.

There has been no official comment from the Tripoli government, but Egypt’s decision to force planes to land in the east is likely to widen divisions in Libya. Some Libyans living in the west have expressed reservations on social media at having to fly through the east.

Turkish and Jordanian airlines no longer fly to Libya.

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Libya: The government dismisses the Turkish companies of all public projects (press release)

February 23, 2015 by administrator

by Ara / armenews

The Libyan government recognized by the international community accuses Ankara of supporting its Islamist rivals, said Sunday she parted the Turkish companies of all public projects.

The government of Abdullah al-Theni decided to “review all the projects awarded to foreign companies and removal of Turkish companies of all projects in the Libyan state,” he said in a statement to Following a meeting of the Board of (…)

Is there any Arab country did not Accuse Turkey interfering and supporting terrorism Now is Libya’s turn

February 19, 2015 by administrator

Abdullah al-Thinni

Ankara has called on the transitional government in Libya to “review its irresponsible attitude and avoid hostile and baseless statements” against Turkey.

Turkey will be forced take “necessary measures” if this attitude does not change, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç said in a written statement on Feb. 19, replying to recent remarks by Abdullah al-Thinni, the prime minister of the Libyan interim government.

The statement came after remarks by Libya’s interim prime minister Abdullah al-Thinni, who accused Ankara of interfering in the domestic affairs of Libya and warned of ending contracts of Turkish businesses in the country.

Bilgic also cited a Libyan military official’s statement accusing Turkey of supporting terrorists in Libya.

Such statements, the spokesperson said, do not reflect “the Libyan people’s brother friendship” with Turkey.

“It’s doubtful how much of these remarks are sourced from Libya,” Bilgic said without elaboration.

Emrullah Isler, a former deputy prime minister and the deputy of the ruling Justice and Development Party, was designated as a special representative of Turkey to hold meetings with Libyan authorities.

Isler, who paid two visits to Libya in 2014, is believed to be the first foreign official that has met with Libya’s self-declared prime minister Omar al-Hassi, who set up his own cabinet in Tripoli and forced the internationally recognized prime minister, Thinni, to move to eastern Libya.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has advised Turkish citizens in Libya to evacuate “immediately.”

Libya, a major oil producer in North Africa, has been witnessing a frayed political process after its former leader Muammar Gaddafi was toppled during the 2011 political turmoil. The country is now juggling between two rival parliaments and governments.

Ankara the epicenter of all crime watch:

how the Turks infiltrated Islamic empire and hijack the Islam

BBC Report: Egypt ‘bombs IS in Libya’ after beheadings video

February 15, 2015 by administrator

In a TV address, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi condemned ”inhuman criminal killers”

Egypt says it has bombed Islamic State targets in Libya, hours after the group published video showing the apparent beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians.

State TV said the dawn strikes had targeted camps, training sites and weapons storage areas.

Earlier, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Egypt had the “right to respond” against IS.

A video emerged on Sunday showing a group wearing orange overalls being forced to the ground and decapitated.

IS militants claim to have carried out several attacks in Libya, which is in effect without a government.

“Egypt reserves the right to respond at the proper time and in the appropriate style in retaliation against those inhuman criminal killers,” President Sisi said.

“Egypt and the whole world are in a fierce battle with extremist groups carrying extremist ideology and sharing the same goals.”

The kidnapped Egyptian workers, all Coptic Christians, were seized in December and January from the coastal town of Sirte in eastern Libya, under the control of Islamist groups.