Tripoli, June 28: A UN Security Council sanctions committee has banned Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s wife from traveling outside Libya and ordered all her foreign assets seized.
Although Gaddafi and other members of his family have been on a UN blacklist since February, for months Russia had blocked the inclusion of Gaddafi’s wife Safia and Planning and Finance Minister Abdulhafid Zlitni on the list of individuals facing a travel ban and asset freeze until last week.
Portugal’s ambassador to the UN, Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral, who is also the chairman of the UN’s Libya sanctions committee, made the announcement during a meeting of the Security Council.
“As of June 24, 2011, the (sanctions) committee listed two individuals as subject to the travel ban and assets freeze and one entity as subject to the assets freeze,” Cabral said.
Although Cabral did not state the names of the individuals and firm newly sanctioned by the committee, Security Council diplomats told Reuters they were Gaddafi’s wife Safia, Zlitni, and the Zueitina Oil Company, which they said was linked to the already-blacklisted Libyan National Oil Corporation.
According to Security Council diplomats, the Security Council’s Libya sanctions committee is still considering UN sanctions against several other Libyan individuals and firms, but Russia and China continue to block their inclusion on the list.
——Agencies