Tripoli Government Asking UN To Unfreeze Libyan Assets To Avoid Depreciation - Minister

The Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), headquartered in Tripoli, is asking the United Nations to unfreeze Libyan assets to avoid depreciation, Ali Issawi, the GNA's economy and industry minister, told journalists on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Palermo Conference for Libya.

PALERMO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th November, 2018) The Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), headquartered in Tripoli, is asking the United Nations to unfreeze Libyan assets to avoid depreciation, Ali Issawi, the GNA's economy and industry minister, told journalists on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Palermo Conference for Libya.

"The main issue in the reforms was removing the distortions in the economy, the price system, subsidy system and the other thing is saving the Libyan assets, the Libyan wealth which was frozen by the UN decrees. We are asking the right to manage these assets, to save the value and save these assets from depreciation because the value of these assets under [freeze] will be devalued," Issawi said.

A number of states across the world froze Libya's assets they held after the anti-government protests broke out in the country in 2011. The UN resolution, dated February 26, 2011, called for such a freeze.

In September, a UN panel found Belgium in breach of the asset freeze sanctions as interest payments on these funds might have been transferred to the accounts belonging to the Libyan Investment Authority.