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By Libya Herald staff.
Tunis, 14 April 2015:
Libya intends to . . .[restrict]ask Russia to provide it with military equipment, Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Thinni has said. It also plans to reactivate Qaddafi-era Russian contracts and to invite Russian companies to bid for new reconstruction projects in the country.
The disclosures were made by the Prime Minister in an unusually long interview with Russian news agency Sputnik prior to him leaving for what appears to be a politically decisive visit to Moscow. He is being accompanied by the Foreign Minister Mohamed Dairi.
“We want Russia . . to aid in rebuilding stability and the military might of Libya,” Thinni was quoted by Sputnik saying, indicating the country’s s growing reconciliation with Moscow. “This is the main reason for this visit,” he added. However he also said that his government would revisit some contracts that were signed with the previous regime in 2008. “There are several contracts we would like to reactivate,” he said, without mentioning which.
Three years ago, when relations with Moscow were at an all-time low, Libya said that although it would honour existing contracts with Russia such as the railway project, it not award any new ones. At the time, Moscow has said that military contracts alone signed with the Qaddafi regime but subsequently lost were worth $4 billion.
However, handicapped by an arms shortage in the fight against Libya Dawn in the west of the country and Islamist extremists in the east and by firm refusals by western countries to provide arms prior to the UN-brokered dialogue process producing a government of national unity, Libya has increasingly been looking to Moscow to furnish spares and other supplies for its mainly Russian-equipped armed forces.
For its part Moscow has indicated its willingness to do so, and despite the international arms embargo, it has already provided Libya with some military equipment previously ordered by the former regime. In September 2013, ten Russian BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, part of an order made by the former regime, were delivered to Tripoli. It had already lifted its own arms embargo against Libya in May 2012.
Two months ago, while in the Russian capital, former foreign minister and current House of Representatives’ Ambassador-at-large Mohamed Abdulaziz indicated that the Russia was happy to supply Libya with military equipment and continue providing military training for the Libyan army.
Last month, the commander of the Libyan armed forces General Khalifa Haftar, currently in Jordan to work out the framework of a new and potentially far-reaching military relationship with it, said that arms deliveries from Russia would be discussed during the Thinni visit to Moscow.
In his interview with Sputnik, Thinni said that there would be a conference in May in Egypt, at which plans for the reconstruction of town and cities under his government’s control would be discussed and that Russian
“During the economic conference in Egypt next month, a call for investors will be made on rebuilding in the region under the control of the legitimate government,” Thinni was quoted as saying. Priorities would be schools and universities, especially the University of Benghazi which, he said, would probably have to be leveled and rebuilt from scratch.
The university has been used as a base by Benghazi Revolutionaries’ Shoura Council (BRSC) and has been heavily targeted by the Libya National Army.
Russian companies would be offered an opportunity to come to Libya and see the sites for themselves, Sputnik said.
“We need a number of companies, including those specialising in construction, security – to protect all airports and sea ports, as well as firms that can help restore the infrastructure in the country,” it reported Thinni as saying.
Plans for Thinni to go to Moscow have been in the pipeline since last October. He was supposed to have gone last month but this was delayed. Russian Ambassador Ivan Molotkov told Sputnik last Thursday that Thinni would be going to Russia this week.
According to the Beida office of the Libyan news agency LANA, Thinni will give a press conference detailing the latest on Libyan-Russian relations in Moscow on Thursday.
Libya’s rapprochement with Moscow is not just seen as being about arms supplies or civil engineering contracts. It is could mean that Russia will veto any move in the Security Council to sanction the Thinni government and members of the House of Representatives if at any point UNSMIL says that they preventing dialogue from succeeding in Libya.
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