The Maltese government was noncommittal yesterday over whether it plans to use millions of euro in frozen Libyan assets to help fund the Libyan rebels, under a proposal made by Italy yesterday.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini yesterday announced the creation of a temporary mechanism to extend a financial lifeline to the rebels based in Benghazi. He was speaking at the end of a meeting of the multi-nation Contact Group on Libya in Rome.
However, Malta’s Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said no final decision had been taken by the EU and Malta too had no formal position on the issue.
“The conclusions of the Contact Group meeting in Rome do not speak of any agreement on a rebel fund and we have not taken any position on whether we agree with this or whether we will participate in it,” Dr Borg told The Times yesterday when contacted after the Rome meeting.
“This is one of the ideas on the table and we will be considering it in the coming weeks together with our EU partners. This is our position at this stage,” he stressed.
A few weeks ago Finance Minister Tonio Fenech had said Malta had frozen financial assets worth millions of euros belonging to the Gaddafi family and the Libyan Investment Authority.
However, although he said their value was “substantial”, Mr Fenech stopped short of giving specific details or saying whom the assets belong to. He said a specific unit within the government had been set up to track and monitor these assets.
Malta’s position mirrors the EU’s. A spokesman for the Foreign Policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said although she had a position in favour of this fund, no formal decision had been taken on how it should be administered and who should contribute towards it.
“We are still working on these proposals and it is too early to say how the system will work or who will be participating,” the spokesman said.
During the Contact Group meeting, the 22 participating countries, which included the US and, for the first time, Sudan and Tunisia, also met representatives of the opposition rebels.
Mahmoud Jibril, on behalf of the Libyan opposition, made a case for the rebels to be given the necessary funds urgently to be able to carry on their war against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
He said the opposition National Council was running out of money and needed about €3 billion by the end of the month to pursue its uprising against the dictator.
The US has already said it is working with Congress to try to unfreeze some $30 billion in Libyan assets held in the US.
During his intervention, Dr Borg reiterated Malta’s offer to create a humanitarian corridor between Libya and Malta and emphasised the need to look into the situation in Misurata, whose population is facing a very difficult situation.