By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 17 July 2013:
“We never claimed we had super powers”, said Prime Minister Ali Zeidan at Sunday’s press conference.
Probably feeling the pressure of the constantly increasing public demands and venting his exasperation at his inability to meet them, Zeidan said that when he came to this government he “knew it was a difficult job”.
“We sacrificed our reputations and our future”, said Zeidan often using the royal “we” and not making it clear if he is referring to himself or his government.
“We can only use the state’s capabilities”, he added stressing the structural and system limitations within which he must work in the post revolution Libya still being reconstructed.
He said that his government was only six months old and that that is a short period of time.
Zeidan that he was not part of any specific political stream said that his government was “neutral. I don’t reflect a political party”.
He also made clear that he was not obsessed with holding on to power. “I am not insistent on staying in office”, he claimed
With reference to the 2013 budget, the Prime Minister said that he had “asked for an extra exceptional budget to meet expenditures on the destruction caused by the revolution”. He did not specify which destruction he was referring to.
On the matter of foreign contractors and the resumption of projects, Zeidan laid the blame squarely on the Libyan public.
“We started with the projects and (some) companies returned. But the Libyans’ insistence on not creating the right security atmosphere” has not made this possible.
Zeidan then began to attempt to haphazardly list a number of his government’s accomplishments. He said that 286 housing units were being implemented by the Investment bank, hospitals were being refurbished, and the agreement was reached on cleaning up the city of Tripoli.
However, he reiterated that his government was only six months old and that that is a short period of time. [/restrict]
