Libya’s Supporters Gather in Paris to Help Ease New Government’s Transition

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Source: The New York Times

PARIS — With Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi effectively overthrown, representatives of some 60 nations gathered here Thursday to help the new Libyan authorities navigate a fraught transition and restore stability and a functioning economy to a country ravaged by rebellion and 42 years of dictatorship. The specter of the quagmire of Iraq kept the tenor of the day hopeful but cautious.

There was also concern over preserving potentially lucrative oil deals made under the Qaddafi government, and an undercurrent of economic competition for the contracts that will have to go out for the reconstruction and restoration of Libya’s tattered infrastructure — oil, gas, utilities, housing and the like.

Rebel leaders have promised to honor existing deals, most of them with Italian and French oil and gas companies. They have also said that in the future they would favor countries that had helped them defeat Colonel Qaddafi, a stance that would lift Britain, France and the United States ahead of those nations that objected to the NATO bombing campaign, including Russia, China and Germany.

In comments made to French radio ahead of the international conference here, France’s foreign minister, Alain Juppé, called the rebel position “fair and logical.” He said that the priority was to help the new government with humanitarian needs and the restoration of water, fuel and power, but he added that investment opportunities were a factor.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/world/europe/02paris.html?pagewanted=all