TRIPOLI, March 6 (Reuters) – The head of Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) said on Tuesday a declaration of autonomy by civic leaders in an eastern province was the result of a foreign plot and risked breaking the country up.
A self-declared congress representing Cyrenaica, the eastern half of Libya and home to most of its oil, said it was setting up a council which would administer the province’s affairs, in defiance of the central government in Tripoli.
“I regret to say that these (foreign) countries have financed and supported this plot that has arisen in the east,” NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil told reporters.
“I call on my brothers, the Libyan people, to be aware and alert to the conspiracies that are being plotted against them and to be aware that some people are dragging the country back down into a deep pit.”
“The NTC is of the opinion that what happened today … is a very critical and serious issue that hampers and threatens national integrity and unity and is rejected by all honourable people, both in the past and now,” he said. (Reporting by Hisham El Dani; Writing by Christian Lowe; editing by Tim Pearce)
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