Libya: Rebuilding through sports

Sports in Libya are taking off in a big way, the sports that were once banned have returned, and Libya prepares for the Olympic games in 2012.

The return of boxing is looked at and how it’s being used to train a new generation of fighters and champions.

Regardless of the nation, culture, sports are of a vital importance.  They unite people, a nation. Towns, cities, and even entire nations can put aside their differences for a little bit and unite for a few hours to cheer on their favorite team, player. That’s power.

Tourism in Libya

The end of the Gaddafi regime brought new economic opportunity for investment and development in Libya. With new leadership in place, foreign investment is being welcomed with open arms.

Tourism in Libya is an industry still in its infancy but one that will gradually start growing. The country is best known for its ancient Greek and Roman ruins and Sahara desert landscapes. There are five UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the country, three of which are classical ruins. The Roman cities of Sabratha and Leptis Magna in Western Libya and the Greek ruins of Cyrene in the East are big tourist attractions. One of the attractions of Libya’s archeological sites, is that they are not as heavily populated by tourists as are other ancient sites in North Africa and southern Europe.

With great cultural sites, and rich traditions, the tourism sector can be key to the country’s economic growth. Having relied on the oil and gas industry for so long, diversifying Libya’s economy is crucial for long term growth and prosperity.

New close partnership between Libya and the U.S.? U.S. Defense Security makes historic visit to Libya

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta greets members of the Libyan delegation on the tarmac during his arrival in Tripoli, Libya, on Saturday.

After the death of Qaddafi, a new chapter is opening up in U.S.-Libya relationsas U.S. defense security Leon Panetta made a historic visit to post Qaddafi Libya.

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said on Saturday that Tripoli could become an important security partner of Washington as he visited Libya for talks with new regime officials.“We are and will be your friend and partner,” Panetta said at a news conference with Libyan Prime Minister Abdel Rahim al-Kib.“This new and free Libya can become an important security partner of the United States,” he said, adding that Washington was looking forward to building a close partnership.“We stand ready to offer whatever assistance in the spirit of friendship and a spirit of mutual respect.” But Panetta, who also met Defence Minister Osama Jouili, stressed that his talks in Tripoli did not involve military equipment. “At this stage there was certainly no discussions involving arms or military equipment,” he said when asked about the type of security cooperation he envisioned. Earlier he had told the travelling press, including an AFP correspondent, that his brief visit to Tripoli was to confer with the country’s new rulers on the security needs of their government. “The purpose of my trip to Libya is to have an opportunity to look at that situation up close but to also pay tribute to the Libyan people to what they did in bringing (former leader Moamer) Kadhafi down and trying to establish a government for the future,” Panetta said. He acknowledged that Libya’s rulers would face huge challenges but said he was confident they would “succeed in putting a democracy together in Libya.” “I’m confident that they’re taking the right steps to reach out to all these groups and bring them together so that they will be part of one Libya and that they will be part of one defence system,” he said. Panetta said he expected the Libyans “to determine the future of Libya” and “determine what assistance they require from the United States and the international community.”Libya’s rulers are facing a big challenge as they try to disarm militiamen who fought to topple Kadhafi and secure thousands of surface-to-air missiles stockpiled under the former regime.

Though one can’t predict the future since it is unknown, what is known now is that Libya and the U.S. won’t have hostile relations between each other post Qaddafi.  This change from hostility to possible cooperation is no doubt good for both nations. The end of the Qaddafi regime brought to an end a sad, tragic, cruel chapter in the lives of the Libyan people.  With a new beginning, the road ahead will be difficult especially in reforming the economy to join global trade, having a stable political environment, but in the long run, that is what’s needed to move ahead.

France’s defense minister visits Libya, deepen ties between both nations

French defense minister Gerard Longuet

To build and improve ties under the new leadership in Libya, France’s defense minister Gerard Longuet arrived in Tripoli on Friday on a three-day visit to the country.

French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet arrived in Tripoli on Friday on a three-day visit designed to boost cooperation with Libya, an AFP reporter said.

The trip comes shortly after the North African nation celebrated the first anniversary of the start of a popular revolt that toppled the regime of Moamer Kadhafi.

Longuet is expected to meet senior officials including Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the ruling National Transitional Council, and Prime Minister Abdel Rahim al-Kib, on how to boost ties between the two countries.

Longuet is also scheduled to visit the war-ravaged coastal city of Misrata and Benghazi in the east, where the uprising started.

Libya and France agreed to increase cooperation in maritime security and controlling the North African country’s borders.  Being strategically placed joining Africa and the Mediterranean makes it exposed.  Neighboring states, especially those across the Mediterranean in Europe are worried about Libya’s capacity to secure its Mediterranean coast, which can be used as a gateway into Europe for arms traffickers, al-Qaeda insurgents and illegal migrants.

China recognizes Libyan National Transitional Council

China has recognized the Libyan National Transitional Council, following the such countries as Germany, Turkey, France, U.K, U.S., Russia and institutions like the United Nations.

China has officially recognised the National Transitional Council as Libya’s ruling authority, the foreign ministry in Beijing has announced. It is the last permanent member of the United Nations security council to do so. China’s relations with the NTC were strained last week when it emerged Chinese arms firms had talked to Muammar Gaddafi’s representatives about weapons sales. The statement, released late on Monday – a public holiday in China – added that Beijing respected the choice of the Libyan people. Spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said China hoped all signed treaties and deals would remain in force and be “implemented seriously”. It cited an unnamed NTC representative as saying: “Libya welcomes China to engage in the country’s reconstruction and jointly push forward the steady and sustained development of bilateral ties”. China had already held talks with the NTC and said it valued its “important role”, but had held off full recognition. “They have taken their time in recognising the rebels,” said Steve Tsang, professor of contemporary Chinese studies at Nottingham University. “I would have thought they really should have done this much earlier. I suspect the timing was simply determined by the practical issues of negotiations with the National Transitional Council and that now they have something they think will be satisfactory from their perspective.” But he added China’s behaviour would affect how it was seen by the rest of the world. “You will have quite a lot of people concluding China is much more interested in protecting its own national interests than performing its duties as a leading power in the international scene. As [one of the] P5 [permanent members of the UN national security council] there are certain expectations and moral responsibilities … The way the post-Gaddafi situation has been handled, [people] have not been giving China a particularly high mark,” he said. Chris Zambelis, a researcher at US consultancy Helios Global who focuses on the Middle East, added: “They saw the writing on the wall … Some countries are still holding out, but one by one they are lining up [behind the NTC].” He said while China’s energy interests in Libya were not as great as those elsewhere, it wanted to protect them. An official with a rebel oil firm suggested last month it might freeze out countries that had not supported it. There was embarrassment when it emerged that Chinese state-owned arms firms met Gaddafi’s representatives in July – despite a UN weapons embargo. Beijing’s foreign ministry said the government did not know of the meetings and that no contracts had been signed or weapons delivered. But Zambelis added: “Whatever rebel government emerges, China already has a place in the country business-wise. It wouldn’t make sense to start shutting it out … We will still see China in Libya.” China surprised some by supporting the UN arms embargo and abstaining on the vote on Nato airstrikes – though it later condemned the bombing. Its investments in Libya are thought to be worth about $20bn (£13bn).

China has been reluctant to recognize the NTC since it would go against its “non-interference” policy.  The changing regional dynamics and winds of change have made China grudgingly change its stance. Like Russia, China had business interests in Libya that it wanted to protect, hence its timidness in supporting the Libyan uprising against Qaddafi.

NATO ends mission in Libya

NATO has officially ended its mission in Libya enforcing the no-fly-zone.

NATO has ended its Libyan military campaign after thousands of combat sorties and billions of dollars of alliance and individual participant expenditures.

The alliance’s no-fly zone and naval blockade, which began in March, were terminated at midnight Monday after the U.N. Security Council closed the book on the mandate authorizing military action to protect Libya’s people from the Moammar Gadhafi regime.

Gadhafi is dead. Remaining members of his family have fled abroad.

And the rebel’s National Transitional Council has elected an interim prime minister, Abdel Rahim El-Keib, who will establish a government in parallel with the NTC to set the stage for a national constituent assembly, a new constitution and general elections.

The two events, however, dovetailed others that may not bode well for El-Keib and his pledge to “guarantee that we are going to build a nation that respects human rights and does not accept the abuse of human rights.”

In Tripoli on Monday two people were killed and at least seven wounded when a militia from the town of Zintan battled with Tripoli Brigade allies while trying to enter the city’s hospital to kill a man they had shot earlier.

The Zintan militia, like others in Tripoli and elsewhere, have ignored NTC calls to set down arms and return to their hometowns and villages.

In the eastern city of Benghazi, the wellhead of the rebellion that toppled Gadhafi, the black flag of al-Qaida has flown from its courthouse.

Elsewhere, various militias are reportedly terrorizing individuals and villagers suspected of having collaborated with Gadhafi forces during the rebellion that came to a close last month.

“We know it’s not easy,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said during a visit to Tripoli. “We know the challenges and if you ask us for help in areas where we can help, we will.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in an interview with The Washington Post, also underlined the challenges.

“They have to figure out how to reconcile various political and religious beliefs,” she said. “They have to unify all the tribes. They have to deal with the rivalry that has existed forever between the west and the east, between Benghazi and Tripoli.”

Reconciliation will be a Libyan process. But NATO countries and Arab states can help with financial aid to help the new government and country build infrastructure and recover from months of fighting.

Training of Libyan military and security forces is another, although NATO has rebuffed an NTC request that it help secure the country’s borders.

Especially important to Libya and NATO — the United States included – is securing Gadhafi regime weapons stockpiles and tracking down weapons looted during the war. The regime was believed to have had as many as 20,000 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. Many were looted and are turning up in black market weapon’s bazaars in the Sinai Peninsula near Israel and elsewhere.

U.N. inspectors are on their way to Libya following an announcement by the NTC that two clandestine chemical weapons sites had been discovered.

Whatever the country’s future, Rasmussen made it clear that NATO considered its military participation in the overthrow of Gadhafi a “successful chapter” in the alliance’s history.

Available statistics indicate that NATO combat aircraft flew more than 9,000 strike sorties, in addition to surveillance missions, during the fighting.

But the mission wasn’t cheap by any means for countries struggling with deteriorating economies. Between March and the end of September, the United States spent about $1.1 billion to oust Gadhafi; Britain spent $257 million-$482 million; and France depleted its treasury by as much as $485 million.

Those expenses are borne by the individual countries for using their own assets.

With the death of Gadhafi, Libya has to look ahead at the challenges that the country faces both economically and politically in the aftermath of the war.  Stability will be needed to produce a safe environment for reconstruction, rebuilding the country from the ground up with new institutions and leadership.

Countries that have regonised the Libyan National Transition Council (NTC)

Countries that have regonised the Libyan National Transition Council (NTC) are shown above.

Russia becomes latest country to recognize Libyan National Transitional Council

Russia recognized the National Transitional Council (NTC) as the government of Libya. Russia had opposed the NATO-led bombing campaign that helped topple Muammar al-Qaddafi, criticizing it for exceeding its mandate under a U.N. Security Council resolution, and calling for a negotiated solution to the conflict.

Russia on Thursday officially recognised Libya’s rebels as the governing authority in the country, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“The Russian Federation recognises Libya’s National Transitional Council as the ruling authority and notes its reform programme that includes the development of a new constitution, holding general elections and forming the government,” it said.

“Our country has established and continued diplomatic relations with Libya since September 4, 1955 without a break, no matter what government holds power in Tripoli,” it said.

“We act on the premise that the agreements and other mutual obligations formerly reached between Russia and Libya remain in effect in the relationship between the two countries and will be honored.”

The annoucement came as World leaders were to meet in Paris to plot Libya’s post-Kadhafi future.

Thursday’s conference in the French capital, which will be attended by delegates from 60 countries, is expected to discuss funding for Libya as well as police training and diplomatic recognition for its new rulers.

Russia though speaking out the most against the enforcement of the no-fly-zone had no logical choice but to recognize the National Transitional Council after numerous countries such as Turkey, Germany, France, U.K., U.S., and the United Nations did. If Russia was the odd man out it would be severely in a bad position when it came to doing business in Libya due to the fact that it was very close to the old regime. Billions of arms sales, oil contracts were signed when Qaddafi was in power and Russia has been reluctant to recognize the NTC  because of uncertainty that those contracts would be upheld once the new leadership is in place.

Here is video report by Russian state controlled Russia Today on the announcement.

The new Libyan Representative to Germany

Dr Aly El-Masednah Kothany is the new chargé d’affaires of the Libyan embassy in Berlin. He is not a career diplomat but a doctor, who studied in Germany. Here is background video report on the new representative.

United Nations gives Libya’s seat to National Transitional Council

The United Nations has given Libya’s seat to the National Transional Council, bringing the recognition of Gaddafi’s government to a formal end.

The UN also passed a resolution easing sanctions on the country, allowing Libya’s national oil company and central bank to resume operations. It means Libya’s national oil company and central bank can resume operations following the conflict.