Libya: France, Italy, UK, US Welcome Return of Oil Terminals under Legitimate NOC

France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States have welcomed the announcement that Libya’s National Oil Corporation has recovered its prerogatives and is resuming its vital work on behalf of all Libyans, insisting that Libya’s oil facilities, production, and revenues belong to the Libyan people.

The four world powers have issued a joint statement on Thursday welcoming the announcement and commending “the legitimate National Oil Corporation as it repairs infrastructure, honors its contractual obligations, and having lifted the state of emergency provisions in eastern Libya, restores oil exports and production critical to Libya’s prosperity”.

They also voiced appreciation for “the LNA’s contributions to restore stability in Libya’s oil sector, which is critical to Libya’s national interest”.

Makin g it clear that Libya’s oil facilities, production, and revenues belong to the Libyan people, they reiterated that “the National Oil Corporation must be allowed to work on behalf of all Libyans and that Libya’s oil resources must remain under the exclusive control of the legitimate National Oil Corporation and the sole oversight of the Government of National Accord (GNA), as outlined in UN Security Council Resolutions 2259 (2015), 2278 (2016), and 2362 (2017)”.

Now is the time for all Libyan players to move forward with a Libyan-owned discussion about how to improve fiscal transparency, strengthen economic institutions, and ensure a just distribution of the country’s resources, within the framework of the Plan of Action formulated by UN Special Representative Ghassan Salameh and on the basis of the Libyan Political Agreement, endorsed by the UN Security Council through resolution 2259 (2015), the statement went on.

“In this regard, we welcome the proposal of the President of the Presidency Council to move forward with enhanced transparency of Libyan economic institutions. More broadly, we call on Libya’s leaders to seize this important opportunity, within the framework of the Libyan Political Agreement, to resolve differences over the Central Bank of Libya, enhance dialogue on the distribution of resources through the national budget, and work toward the unification of the Central Bank of Libya and the dissolution of parallel institutions, as agreed in the May 29 Political Declaration in Paris,” the four countries said.

Expressing solidarity with Libya’s leaders as they work toward an inclusive Libyan owned political process that will lead to credible, peaceful and well-prepared national elections as soon as possible, the four governments pledged to support Libyan leaders in pursuing these measures and said they will use all tools at their disposal to hold accountable those who undermine Libya’s peace, security, and stability.