Doha - The international community has been slow in lifting sanctions to release frozen Libyan assets of some $170 billion to the country's new leadership after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, a Libyan central bank official said on Wednesday.
“There is a strong demand to release the blocked money that belongs to the country. As you know there were decisions but it has been a little slow,” Abdulla Saudi told Reuters ahead of a meeting of Arab finance ministers and central bank governors in the Qatari capital Doha.
The total blocked amount which belongs to the central bank and the Libyan Investment Authority is about $170 billion, said Saudi, a representative of Libya's central bank at the meeting.
Diplomats at the United Nations said on Wednesday that Britain had circulated to members of the Security Council a draft resolution that would ease UN sanctions against Libya and hopes to vote on it this week.
Such assets, the draft says, can only be released on the basis of a decision of the Security Council's Libya sanctions committee, which one senior Security Council diplomat said has already unfrozen $16 billion of Libyan assets to date.
Libya's frozen assets have been held by various governments over the last half year in compliance with the UN sanctions regime imposed in February and March.
Asked if Libya needed financial support, Saudi said: “At the moment, no.”
But he said Libya might need bridge financing because there is not enough liquidity at the moment.
Saudi Libya still has 144 tons of gold in reserve distributed at three locations. The gold that was in Tripoli was safe, he said.
“Now I will not advise them to sell the gold... Now the way we look at it is as a hedge for other currencies.” - Reuters