United Nations, Mar 4: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has sacked the country's UN envoy who turned against the regime but the United Nations has not yet accepted the move, a spokesman said today.
Gaddafi has named Ali Triki, a former foreign minister who was president of the UN General Assembly in 2009-1010, as his new representative, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
He would not say whether the United Nations would accept the move or who the global body now considers the legitimate representative of the country which has been roiled by turmoil over protests against Gaddafi.
The regime sent a letter this week saying it no longer recognised ambassador Abdurrahman Shalgham, another former foreign minister, and deputy ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi as Libya's representatives.
Shalgham and Dabbashi gave impassioned speeches condemning Gaddafi as a "tyrant" and pleading for sanctions before the UN Security Council passed measures last Saturday against Gaddafi, who has ruled Libya for four decades.Neither official was immediately available to say what action they would take now.
Nesirky said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has received a new letter from the Tripoli government. "That correspondence names Dr Triki as the person they wish to have as the permanent representative of that country."
The UN secretariat is studying the letter, he said. Gaddafi's regime remains the internationally recognized Libyan government even though UN members have taken measures such as sanctions against the leader and his entourage, and throwing Libya off the UN Human Rights Council.
"Any country has the right to revoke and recall and the right to name and that is something that any country which is a member state of the United Nations can do," Nesirky said.
"It is not a normal set of circumstances by any means, I am not saying it is unprecedented, but it is certainly very unusual. And therefore we need to look at the ramifications," he added. (AFP)
