Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar said he was committed to ending a months-long blockade of oil facilities, the US Embassy in the country revealed in a statement Saturday.
It said the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) had conveyed "the personal commitment of General Haftar to allow the full reopening of the energy sector no later than Sept. 12."
In a letter to Haftar, US Ambassador to Tripoli Richard Norland noted that the embassy said that “in recent discussions with a broad range of Libyan leaders” it had backed “a financial model that would constitute a credible guarantee that oil and gas revenues would be managed transparently”.
“The Embassy welcomes what appears to be a Libyan consensus that it is time to reopen the energy sector,” it added.
Meanwhile, Libyans are suffering a severe crisis in the electricity sector due to the blockade in addition to the pandemic and the threat posed by foreign mercenaries and armed groups on the energy infrastructure.
Chairman of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) Mustafa Sanallah stressed during his meeting with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas - days earlier - the urgent need to put an end promptly to the blockade of oil facilities in Libya.
Maas, for his part, called for ending the blockade and added that his country is following up on all exerted efforts in this regard.
Haftar’s LNA and its backers imposed the blockade during January, reducing Libya’s oil output from more than one million barrels per day (bpd) to less than 100,000 bpd, and further deepening Libya’s economic collapse.
