Libya to honor Russian contracts

The Libyan government recognizes all the business contracts signed with Russia, as well as all international political agreements, Libya’s new Prime Minister Abdel-Rahim al-Keeb said on Tuesday. The National Transitional Council, Libya’s interim government, elected Keeb, an electronics engineer from Tripoli, as prime minister on Monday. “We respect all contracts signed with Russia and other countries,” he said in an interview with the newspaper Moskovskie Novosti. “We are simply duty bound to do that. We also recognize all the previous international political agreements.” He underscored that economic contracts will only be deemed unlawful if they involved graft or corruption schemes. “The Libyan people cannot shoulder such expenses as well. We know that there were contracts with the old regime where kickbacks account for up to 40 percent and even half the sum in question,” he said. “I’m sure that this approach is unacceptable to the Russians, too.”