Foreign relations of Libya

In late June 2011, it proposed using internationally based frozen assets belonging to Gaddafi and his inner circle as collateral for loans, with Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni warning that his government is virtually out of money.

[14] However, on 23 August, Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said his government had been assured that if the NTC took power in Libya, "contracts will be respected" and Brazil would not be punished for its stance.

They were marked by severe tension with the West and by other national policies in the Middle East and Africa, including the Libyan government's financial and military support for numerous paramilitary and rebel groups.

These reports were never confirmed, but established an early narrative that the post-revolutionary government of Egypt was seeking to aid a revolution in neighbouring Libya as part of a North African solidarity effort.

[182] In January 2012, Mali became the first African nation to agree to accept prisoners convicted by the International Criminal Court, which wants to try Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and several other former Libyan regime officials being held by ex-revolutionary groups in Libya.

On 1 October, Nigerien Justice Minister Marou Amadou reiterated his government's refusal to extradite Al-Saadi Gaddafi, but said the NTC was welcome to interrogate him in Niamey, Niger's capital.

The Nigerien government must send the fugitives from justice back to their home country, the NTC spokesman warned, in order for Niger to "preserve its relationship and interests" in Libya.

[201] In early 2012, months after the collapse of Gaddafi's regime, Zuma complained to the United Nations Security Council that the crisis in Libya had "now grown to be a regional problem" as a result of the UN failing to work with the AU during the war.

[219] However, as the conflict dragged on, PRC officials began to meet with their NTC counterparts, inviting Mahmoud Jibril to Beijing in late June 2011 for bilateral talks.

[223][224] However, relations between the NTC and the PRC were shaken by reports that state-controlled weapons manufacturers in Mainland China met with a high-level delegation from the Gaddafi government in July 2011 in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1970.

[227][228] However, he stopped short of expressing Indonesian recognition of the NTC as the country's legitimate authority, and at the United Nations General Assembly vote on accrediting the representative of Libya designated by the council on 16 September, Indonesia abstained.

[229] Indonesian energy firm MedcoEnergi reopened its Tripoli office in mid-September 2011 and said later in the month that it would resume oil exploration and production in the Area-47 block of the Libyan oilfields in October 2011.

[231] Both countries established diplomatic relations on 21 May 1955 when Mr. Abdul Munim Gailani, Envoy Extraordinary and minister Plenipotentiary of Iraq to Libya presented his letters of credence.

[229] Qatar was the second country to recognise the NTC and the first to announce a trade agreement with it, declaring on 27 March 2011 that it would market Libyan oil exports from eastern terminals controlled by anti-Gaddafi elements.

[236] The NTC faced one of its first diplomatic quandaries after Iman al-Obeidi, a Libyan woman who accused Gaddafi-loyal militiamen of beating and gang-raping her at a checkpoint in a high-profile appearance before journalists at the Rixos Al Nasr in Tripoli, was granted asylum in Qatar.

[239] Qatari military advisers also reportedly accompanied some anti-Gaddafi brigades in the Nafusa Mountains[240] and during the coastal offensive in Tripolitania, even helping to direct some fighters in the storming of Gaddafi's Bab al-Azizia compound in central Tripoli.

[229] However, Assad's government has allowed Al-Rai TV, a Syrian station, to broadcast pro-Gaddafi propaganda since the leader's fall from power, including audio messages from Gaddafi, members of his family, and former Information Minister Moussa Ibrahim.

[247] Turkey was a prominent backer of the Libyan opposition during the civil war, although it was initially strongly opposed to the international military intervention[252] and expressed concern about the violence.

[252] With Turkey's reversal on the international military mission, as well as its decision to recognise the NTC in early July 2011,[254] it gained considerably more influence with the ultimately victorious rebels.

[279] Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi also announced the release of $505 million in frozen Libyan assets as a "first payment" to Libya's new government as its forces battled to secure Tripoli.

[284][285] On 21 February 2011, days before the establishment of the NTC in Benghazi, two Libyan Air Force fighter jets defected to Malta rather than bomb the restive eastern cities.

[286] After the fall of Tripoli to anti-Gaddafi forces in late August 2011, Maltese Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg announced on 10 September that Malta would become the first EU country to reopen its embassy in the Libyan capital.

[290] At the beginning of the civil war, the Polish government was not eager to participate in any military action in Libya, but called the other members of NATO and European Union to use other ways, but prime minister Donald Tusk assured that Poland would take part in some "community activities.

[307] Three days later Libyan decedents decided to strengthen bilateral relations and notify Polish MFA about upgrading its Economic Cooperation Bureau in Warsaw to the rank of Embassy and establish a joint Libyan-Polish commission headed by its Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

[308] Russia sharply criticised the NATO-led military intervention in the Libyan civil war, though it chose not to use its veto power on the United Nations Security Council to block it.

[316] In early September 2011, the Royal Air Force flew crateloads of unfrozen Libyan funds in the form of dinar banknotes to Benghazi, the location of the NTC's interim central bank.

[124] Australia was a major non-military backer of the revolutionaries during the Libyan Civil War, sending more humanitarian aid to Libya than any other single country after the United States.

[323] In early June, Vice Chairman Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, a frequent spokesman for the council, emphasised his government's intention to reintegrate Libya into the Arab world.

[327] Relations between the AU and the NTC have been strained by persistent reports of hate crimes, including arbitrary detentions and lynchings, being perpetrated against black people in Tawergha, Tripoli, and other places in Libya.

Ban also backed a proposed United Nations Security Council resolution to codify the international body's role in supporting Libyan democracy and stability.