Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini opened Italy’s consulate in the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi yesterday and pledged financial support for the rebels who are seeking to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi.
Italian oil firm Eni, the biggest foreign oil company in Libya, was taking part in the financial and fuel aid package for the rebel National Transitional Council, he said.
Frattini, the latest in a series of high-ranking Western visitors to Benghazi, said the aid, including “huge amounts of fuel and huge amounts of money worth hundreds of millions of euros” was promised in a memorandum of understanding he signed.
He did not give precise figures.
“In that memorandum, Italy not only confirmed its recognition of the council as the only representative of the Libyan people but also we took a commitment (from) the Italian company Eni and an Italian bank UniCredit to provide the council for the needs of the Libyan people,” he said.
Separately, UniCredit Chief Executive Federico Ghizzoni said the bank was ready to look at ways “to funnel resources towards Libya.”
“The idea is to help the interim government, but how to do so has yet to be defined,” Ghizzoni told reporters ahead of a meeting with students in the Italian city of Bologna.
“I confirm that UniCredit is open to discussing the matter.”
Eight Libyan army officers appeared in Rome on Monday, saying they were part of a group of as many as 120 military officials and soldiers who had defected from Gaddafi’s side in recent days. Other officials have also defected.
“I think the Gaddafi regime is over and I firmly believe that it is over for a simple reason: we are talking about a person whose closest friends are defecting. He lost his legitimacy in Libya,” Frattini said.
Other visitors to Benghazi have included European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the Polish foreign minister and a senior US diplomat.
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