“Algeria will not shelter those who threaten Libya”: Abdel Jalil

Libya’s NTC leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil expressed confidence Monday that Algeria would not shelter anyone who poses a threat to his country, in a reference to Moammar Kadhafi’s family members who were granted asylum by Algeria.

• “We appreciate the humanitarian position of Algeria for hosting the families, including women and children, but we are convinced that it would not shelter those who represent a threat for Libya’s security,” said Abdel Jalil after talks with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in Algiers.
• “We agreed that what constitutes a threat for Libya through financing or through subversion would not have a place in the Algerian territory,” added the Libyan leader at the end of a 48 hour official visit to Algeria at the invitation of President Abdellaziz Bouteflika.
• “We are ready to help our Algerian brothers in case of any behavior or action by these people that could hurt the interests and security of Libya,” he added, referring to calls made by Kadhafi’s daughter Aisha on Libyans to rebel against the new authorities, Abdel Jalil asserted.

  Several of Kadhafi’s family members, including his daughter Aisha, her brothers Mohammed and Hannibal, and Kadhafi’s widow Safiya, fled to Algeria in late August and were granted asylum on strictly humanitarian grounds.

• Algeria has twice rapped Aisha for calling on Libyans via the RAI TV channel to revolt against the transitional council which overthrew her father’s regime.

• Tripoli has been seeking the repatriation of Aisha and several others of Kadhafi’s clan. But Abdel Jalil did not appear to have publicly made the request while in Algiers.

• Rather, he underlined the “deep historic relations” between the two Maghrebian countries.

• Beyond the controversy surrounding the exiled Kadhafi family, Libyan and Algerian officials also discussed ways of boosting border security and giving a fresh impetus to bilateral cooperation in various fields of endeavour .