Tag Archives: United States

By Tony Karon

In his State of the Union Address last week President Barack Obama seemed to link the fate of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad with that of Libya’s Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. “A year ago, Gaddafi was one of the world’s longest-serving dictators — a murderer with American blood on his hands,” said the President. “Today, he is gone. And in Syria, I have no doubt that the Assad regime will soon discover that the forces of change cannot be reversed, and that human dignity cannot be denied.”

As the international community struggles to respond to Syria’s increasingly bloody power struggle, some see Libya as an example worth following. It was, they emphasize, a foreign military intervention limited to air power and small Special Forces deployments that helped e a patchwork of local militias to dispatch the Gaddafi regime at minimal cost in foreign blood and treasure. But Libya’s power struggle is far from done and dusted.

The increasing fragility of the post-Gaddafi order has been evident, in recent weeks, through a series of high-profile clashes between rival militia forces. There have been reports of widespread torture and abuse at the hands of militiamen barely answerable to the new political authorities of Libyans suspected by of having served Gaddafi, and growing protests against the interim government known as the National Transitional Council.… Read More

President Barack Obama on Monday night announced his intent to nominate career Senior Foreign Service member John Christopher Stevens as US ambassador to Libya.

In 2010, Stevens served as special representative to the Libyan Transitional National Council from March to November. Prior to that, he was director of the Office of Multilateral Nuclear and Security Affairs.

From 2007 to 2009, he served as deputy chief of mission in Tripoli. From 2006 to 2007, he was a Pearson Fellow with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Previous overseas assignments have included deputy principal officer and political section chief in Jerusalem; political officer in Damascus; consular/political officer in Cairo; and consular/economic officer in Riyadh.

In Washington, Stevens has served as special assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Iran desk officer, and staff assistant in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.… Read More

Members of the United States-Libya Chamber of Commerce will be visiting Tripoli at the invitation of the Transitional National Council, NTC, on February 24-27 as part of an official delegation joined by the US Chamber of Commerce

The board of the US-Libya Chamber of Commerce said that the official delegation travelling to Libya, made up of member companies, will include a small contingent of member companies from the newly established US-Libya Chamber of Commerce. It will be the first US-led business delegation into Libya since the instalment of the Libyan Cabinet on August 19, 2011.

The delegation will to be hosted by the president of the Independent Libya Foundation, ILF, Mr Basit Igtet, will meet with senior ministers of the Libyan government as well as the the head of the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, and other leaders of the NTC.… Read More

By Samuel Rubenfeld

The U.S. lifted key sanctions on Libya’s government late Friday, freeing more than $30 billion in assets frozen since a February uprising that ended with the death of mercurial leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi.

Friday evening’s announcement unfreezes any Libyan government and central bank assets under U.S. jurisdiction, with limited exceptions, the White House said in a statement.

It comes as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited Libya over the weekend to see how the transition is going, and there’s more on that here, here and here. The action was taken in coordination with the United Nations Security Council, which on Friday unfroze assets of the central bank, and the Libyan Foreign Bank.… Read More

By: David Batty

Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, has warned Libya’s leaders they face a long struggle in emerging from decades of dictatorship and uniting the rival militias that still hold sway over many parts of the country.

Panetta, the first Pentagon chief ever to set foot in Libya, said Washington would support the new government’s efforts to take control of the oil-producing nation two months after the death of Muammar Gaddafi, but did not offer specific aid.

“This will be a long and difficult transition, but I am confident that you will succeed,” he said after meeting Libya’s interim prime minister, Abdurrahim el-Keib. “I’m confident they [the interim leaders] are taking the right steps to reach out to all of these groups and bring them together so they will be part of one Libya and one defence system.”… Read More