The United States gave Libya’s new rulers a visible show of support yesterday when a senior envoy visited the capital and praised their efforts to assert control of armed groups three weeks after Muammar Gadafy was overthrown.
Washington has taken a back seat to France and Britain in Nato-led air strikes that helped the ragtag rebel coalition take Tripoli last month. And, wary of a backlash after their military takeovers in Iraq and Afghanistan, US officials are at pains to avoid seeming to take control of oil-rich Libya.
But the visit of Jeffrey Feltman put an American accent firmly in the centre of a Tripoli recovering from six months of civil war. The state department’s top Middle East diplomat assured interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil of continued Nato support and played down fears of a hostile Islamist takeover.
Putting a spotlight on the US role in what is seen so far in the West as a successful intervention comes at a welcome time for the Obama administration as it grapples with complex problems elsewhere in the Middle East.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy, glad for a fillip to his re-election campaign from helping topple Gadafy, is expected to visit Tripoli in person soon.
Western powers, which had reconciled with Col Gadafy in recent years, are now competing with each other and with the likes of China and Russia for the favour of his successors, looking for trade deals on oil and gas and a share of building contracts.
Mr Feltman said Washington remained committed to Nato and Gulf Arab air operations to thwart any threats to civilians, as Col Gadafy’s fugitive spokesman renewed claims that the ousted leader was still in the country and rallying his forces for a fightback.
Mr Feltman also praised Mr Abdel Jalil’s National Transitional Council (NTC) for progress toward bringing the army, police and a host of local and partisan militias under its control.
Foreign powers are worried about the risk of anarchy after 42 years of Gadafy rule. The European Union yesterday demanded an end to arbitrary killings and detentions by both sides and especially to attacks on sub-Saharan Africans and black Libyans, who are widely accused of having fought for Col Gadafy.
Mr Feltman, an assistant secretary of state, said: “We remain encouraged by growing command and control over security and police forces. We understand that this is a difficult task.”
Asked about the strength of Islamist groups in the rebel coalition, he said: “We are not concerned that one group will be able to dominate the aftermath of what has been a shared struggle.” He also said he expected the new rulers in Tripoli to “share concerns about terrorism” with Washington. Some senior Islamists among the rebel forces have in the past been allied with enemies of the US, though they have since welcomed co-operation with the western military alliance.
Mr Sarkozy may visit Tripoli and Benghazi, the seat of February’s uprising, today, a French magazine said. NTC deputy chairman Abdel Hafiz Ghoga said in Benghazi that the chairman, Mr Abdel Jalil, and the NTC would remain based in their eastern stronghold, rather than in the capital in the west, at least until the “liberation” of those cities remaining in the hands of Col Gadafy’s supporters.
Gadafy spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim said yesterday the 69-year-old leader was still in Libya, in good spirits and ready to fight back.