By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 29 April 2013:
At yesterday evening’s press conference, replying to a question from the press, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan . . .[restrict]revealed that there were warnings that were passed on to embassies regarding possible attacks on them.
“Yes, there were warnings. I told embassies to be careful”, was his response to the question of whether there were warnings.
Zeidan then continued to say that what happened in Tripoli “happened in Boston, New York, and Kenya and many other cities”.
Asked what steps his government had taken to protect embassies in Libya, Zeidan said that he “will take steps to ensure the security of all Libya”.
“We started training the police over the last three months and succeeded in protecting embassies (using the special unit for protecting diplomats)”.
“We have now reinforced this unit and given it new equipment. We are continuing in these steps, but these things (bombs, terrorism) happen all over the world. I am not saying that it is normal, but they happen.”
Asked about the security situation in Libya Zeidan said “We came out of a war and we have started building an army and a police”.
Zeidan then, surprisingly, went on to draw comparisons between Libya’s situation with those of Iraq. “When you compare the situation in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, we are in a much better situation”.
He admitted that the situation in Libya was not perfect. “We are not a model government. We are in exceptional circumstances facing many challenges. But we are not at war and we are not in conflict with any of our neighbours”.
He then reminded everyone that the Qaddafi regime had “released about 16,000 prisoners which included drugs and arms smugglers”, which are contributing to Libya’s lack of security. [/restrict]
