By Hadi Fornaji.
Tunis, 10 June 2017:
The chairman of the House of Representatives’ (HoR) defence and national security committee, Talal Almaihub, says that it is compiling its own list of Libyans living in or linked to Qatar whom it believes to be “terrorists”. It plans to hand the names to interim government foreign minister Mohamed Dayri for him to pass on to the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain so that they can be added to their existing terrorist list.
On Thursday, the four countries unveiled a list of “terrorists” which they said were acting on behalf of Qatar. These include grand mufti Sadek Al Ghariani, Abdulhakim Belhadj, Ali Salabi, his brother Ismail, former central Tripoli mayor Mahdi Al-Harati and the Benghazi Defence Brigades.
Almaihub did not reveal who is on the additional list.
Meanwhile, the HoR’s energy and natural resources committee, welcoming the decision to break diplomatic relations with Qatar, has called on the National Oil Corporation to cancel all dealings with Qatari companies and with any organisations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The only known project directly involving Qatar and the NOC is the proposed $2-billion Skhira oil refinery in Tunisia. Planned to operate using Libya oil, the project is still on the drawing board, however.
Nonetheless, the energy committee specifically mentioned Glencore, the Swiss-based commodities giant, and Lord Energy (also Swiss) with which contracts should be cancelled. Glencore, which has a deal with the NOC to sell up to 230,000 barrels of oil a day from the Sarir and Messla oilfields, partnered with the Qatar Investment Authority in acquiring a 19.5-percent stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft last year.
