adminrepresentative of the Libyan people.
“China respects the choice of the Libyan people and attaches great importance to the status and the role of NTC, and has kept in close contact with it,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a written statement.
China will work with the NTC to realise a steady and smooth transition and development of bilateral ties, he said. China hopes that all the treaties and agreements inked previously with Libya could remain effective and be implemented seriously, Ma said.
The UN Security Council may also lift sanctions against Libya within 10 days, Russian UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said yesterday.
“We have already started working on a resolution . . . lifting the sanctions against Libya imposed by previous resolutions,” Churkin said in an interview with Rossiya-24 TV channel.
Churkin said that the new resolution on Libya would address establishment of a new political system and holding elections, as well as mechanisms to promote democracy and overcome hostilities among the opposing factions in Libya.
Meanwhile, Niger’s Justice Minister Marou Adamou confirmed that Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saadi had fled Libya and taken refuge in Niger.
The official said Saadi was part of a group of nine people who crossed the southwestern border.
A senior Niger official said that the African nation would respect its commitments to the International Criminal Court if Gaddafi or his sons are caught.
However, Gaddafi’s forces launched surprise fightbacks on three fronts yesterday killing at least 12 NTC soldiers.
But NATO vowed that there would be no let-up in its bombing campaign against Gaddafi’s remaining strongholds, which also include the southern oases of Waddan and Sabha, as long as they pose a threat.
In the capital, a massive explosion at an arms depot near the international airport injured two people on yesterday, an AFP photographer and witnesses said. Banks meanwhile, prepared to start withdrawing from circulation the 50-dinar banknote, which bears a portrait of Gaddafi and, with a value of around 40 dollars is Libya’s largest denomination. – Xinhua-Ria Novosti-AFP.
Online Reporter