By Jamie Prentis.
Tunis, 7 August 2017:
Presidency Council (PC) member Mohamed Al-Amari has criticised what he says it a deliberately misleading campaign by the media against the agreement that allows Italian warships into Libyan waters.
He said Italy was simply helping with training, technical assistance and maintaining and supporting Libya’s coastguard.
“This (media) campaign is not intended to enlighten the public opinion, but rather to continue the chaos and to disrupt our arrival at the stage of stability in which the Libyan people will be able to pass its constitution and establish its institutions,” Amari has said in a statement published today.
Insisting that the PC was wholly committed to Libya’s sovereignty, he said it would ignore all the misleading comments which stemmed from a complete lack of understanding about the issue of the Italian ships. Everything the PC did was to protect Libya and help bring back stability, whether by land, air or sea, Amari added.
The first Italian naval vessel to recently dock in Tripoli, the Commandante Borsini, has now left Libyan waters.
For his part, State Council president Abdulrahman Sewehli has welcomed the arrival of Italian vessels as a sign of the “serious steps” taken by the PC to “establish state control”.
Any country seeking to help Libya deal with its array of challenges would be welcomed, Sewehli stated. He largely agreed with the line taken by Amari, saying that criticism of the PC were part of media campaigns intent on misleading the public.
