By Tom Westcott and Ahmed Elumami.
Tripoli, 8 March 2014:
The North Korean-flagged tanker illegally loading crude at the eastern oil export terminal . . .[restrict]of Es-Sider will be bombed if it does not follow instructions from the Libyan military, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has said.
In the first government response to the presence of the vessel – Morning Glory – which arrived this morning after spending several days off the Libyan coast, Zeidan said it would be targeted if it did not follow orders when leaving the port.
This would be an environmental disaster, he added.
A member of the General National Congress (GNC) oil committee, Sulaiman Gajam, told the Libya Herald that the Chief of Staff Abdulsalam Al-Obaidi had been instructed to: “Take the necessary action to deal with the ship as an illegal target.” He said, however, that “some logistical problems” had delayed action being taken.
“People have to be patient because the military are going to deal with it in a matter of hours,” Gajam said.
The Libyan authorities had asked the North Korean ambassador in Tripoli to intercede, he said, and telephone calls were made to ask the captain of the ship to stop loading the oil. The captain, however, failed to respond to the request.
The Saudi Arabian embassy was also contacted, Gajam said, because this was the country where the vessel was registered. The ambassador apologised over the incident, he said, but explained that the ship belonged to a private Saudi businessman.
Morning Glory has loaded the equivalent of 350,000 barrels of oil, spokesperson for the so-called ‘government of Cyrenaica’ Ali El-Hassi told the Libya Herald this evening. Self-styled leader of the federalist movement in the East, Ibrahim Jadhran, was beside him, Hassi said, but was too busy to talk to the press.
Just an hour later, representatives from the ‘government of Cyrenaica’ and local tribal elders were celebrating what they claimed was their first oil sale in a ceremony at Es-Sider oil terminal. [/restrict]
