SECRETARY BLINKEN: Prime Minister, welcome again. And I’m so pleased to have this opportunity to see you, to see the foreign minister, to see your delegation, especially after the very good, good day we had yesterday, which I think demonstrated again the very strong support on the part of the international community, the United Nations for Libya, for a strong, positive future as a unified, independent, stable country without any foreign interference.
And I think the path that you’re on and that you’re leading the country on is – offers tremendous opportunity and possibility for the future. I know the Libyan people very much look forward to elections in December, and I know you’re working toward that, but we’re very pleased for this opportunity today to talk in a little bit more detail. So welcome. Very good to see you.
INTERIM PRIME MINISTER DABAIBA: Thank you, Secretary. We are very grateful for your presence with us yesterday.
You clearly presented your good position on several issues that are very important to us, and we look forward to a lot of support and cooperation, through Special Envoy Norland and the U.S. Embassy in Libya. We are grateful for your position, attitude and cooperation, that was very clear recently. This shows the level of interest the United States has in Libya and the Libyan position.
We are grateful for the wonderful cooperation we had in the African Lion Exercise and your invitation to Mr. Al-Haddad to be there with you on the ground.
Raising the level of Ambassador Norland to Special Envoy was appreciated because Mr. Norland personally knows the Libyan issue very well and knows the country, and he was one of the people who helped make this government a reality via the Geneva Conference and Tunis conferences and he visited all Libyan cities and knows the Parliament.
We have many difficulties and challenges ahead. We are counting a lot on the United States to collaborate with us in many fields, especially international cooperation, and building international relationships, especially concerning the countries that are involved in Libya.
We are on the same page, but our collaboration should not be limited to a political level only, we should also look at other ways like an economic partnership and we will discuss all that shortly.