The meeting, attended by representatives of the US, France, Britain, Italy, Germany and Turkey, was held at the request of the National Transitional Council (NTC), the political organ of Libya’s rebellion.
The aim of the talks was “to make provisions and arrange for $ 2.5bn for the NTC in order to pay salaries of Libyans” before the end of the month, and for humanitarian support, NTC number two Mahmud Jibril said in Doha on Tuesday.
“The countries in the contact group must ensure that the NTC is provided with the required resources and support to assume its responsibilities to the Libyan people,” Qatar’s Minister of State for International Co-operation, HE Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah, said yesterday.
According to Qatari state news agency QNA, al-Attiyah noted the “urgency for the moment of paying unpaid salaries for the previous six months”.
Addressing a press conference after the meeting, al-Attiyah congratulated the Libyans for their victory. He stated that the meeting also discussed support for the Libyan request for UN to unfreeze $ 5bn of the country’s assets.
The Libyan ambassador and member of the Stability Committee, Dr Arif Ali al-Nayid, expressed his thanks to Qatar for its support. He said Qatar had played a courageous role in helping the Libyans in their struggle for freedom.
The UN Security Council met later yesterday to discuss a US proposal to release frozen Libyan assets in order to assist the NTC.
Those assets were frozen on February 26 by a UN resolution that imposed tough international sanctions on Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, his family and his close associates, in response to the brutal repression of rebel forces in Libya following their revolt.
The contact group was created in London on March 29 and includes 30 countries, including Qatar, and international organisations, including the UN, the European Union and the Arab League.
