Tripoli, 15 April:
Sources at the Prime Minister’s office expressed their exasperation at the continued rumours circulating about the resignation of Prime . . .[restrict]Minister Abdurrahim Al-Kib today.
The latest to surface today – Sunday 15 April – maintained that premier Al-Kib had resigned and that Ali Tarhuni, the Minister of Finance and Oil under the previous Mahmoud Jibril government, had been appointed by Mustafa Abdul Jalil instead in a ‘salvation government’.
The Prime Minister’s office was particularly frustrated as some prominent Libyan television stations had repeated the rumour.
The source at the Prime Minister’s office, who asked to remain anonymous, told Libya Herald that they were tired of these rumours which had surfaced earlier and which the official spokesperson had already denied last week.
He was particularly annoyed at the inaccuracy of the rumour claimimg that premier Al-Kib had handed in his resignation today NTC head Mustafa Abdul Jalil, when both are in fact abroad.
Libya Herald had phoned the prime Minister’s office on Sunday afternoon (4.55pm) to get a comment on the rumour only after it was reported by Libyan television stations.
The source had expressed his frustration that other media sources had not bothered to contact the Prime Minister’s office to confirm the facts prior to transmission/publication.
Echoing what the official spokesperson Nasser Al-Mana had repeatedly said in his official press conferences, he went on to speculate as to who would gain from continuing to circulate these rumours. Who would gain from Libya being unstable, he speculated?
He hoped that the new independent Libyan media would mature and act more responsible, taking the necessary steps to double-check their facts prior to publication.
Meanwhile, when Libya Herald contacted a source close to Ali Tarhuni for a comment about the story, all they would say was that Ali Tarhuni ‘categorically doesn’t comment on speculation’. [/restrict]
