Brasília – On a visit to Brasília until next Thursday (19th), the Libyan deputy prime minister Omar Abdelkarim spoke with the Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and the United States secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday. Abdelkarim told them that the provisional government of Libya intends to re-establish closer ties with the West by means of political, economic and commercial partnerships. According to him, the efforts of Libyan authorities are turned to reconstructing the country.
According to diplomats who attended the meetings, the deputy prime minister (third in the government hierarchy) told Rousseff and Hillary that the Libyan government‘s goal is to relate to all countries without exception. Abdelkarim attended the 1st Open Government Partnership, an annual high-level conference.
In Brasília, Abdelkarim also met with the Brazilian Foreign Relations minister, Antonio Patriota, government officials and Brazilian ambassadors to the Middle East and North Africa. At the meetings, the deputy prime minister stressed that there is a desire to restructure the country, not only on the government’s part, but on society’s as well.
Six months after the death of former president Muammar Gaddafi, whose rule lasted 42 years, the country remains under tension. Ruled by a provisional government coordinated by the National Transitional Council (NTC), Libya is plagued with frequent protests and demonstrations calling for elections to choose the president and representatives.
Constituent Assembly elections are scheduled for June 23rd, when 200 representatives will be selected. The Libyan authorities have also increased their contact with the international community seeking support to reorganize the government institutions, overcoming the difficulties created by seven months of confrontations, from the first protests until the capturing of Gaddafi, in October 2011.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
