OCTOBER 12, 2011.
Libya Finance Minister Blasts Qatari Aid to Militia Groups .
By CHARLES LEVINSON
TRIPOLI—Libya's governing National Transitional Council issued its sternest public rebuke of Qatar on Tuesday, warning the Gulf emirate to stop funneling arms, money and other support to Libyan factions without the approval of Libya's interim governing authority.
Reuters
NTC leader Jalil visits fighters Tuesday in Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte..
"It's time we publicly declare that anyone who wants to come to our house has to knock on our front door first," Ali Tarhouni, Libya's oil and finance minister and the deputy chief of the NTC's executive committee, told a news conference. "I hope this message will be received by all our friends, both our Arab brothers and Western powers."
Mr. Tarhouni didn't name Qatar, but his comments came in response to a journalist's question about recent allegations that Qatar has continued to ship weapons to militia leaders in Libya weeks after the capital's fall, and without the approval or knowledge the ruling NTC. An NTC official said afterward that Qatar was "without any doubt" the target of his comments.
Abdel Hakim Belhaj, the controversial Islamist commander of the Tripoli Military Council who is alleged to have received the most recent weapons shipments, denied the allegations. "We do not receive any help, military or non-military from any entity," he said in an interview. "I challenge anyone to prove otherwise."
Mr. Tarhouni's comments come as tensions are heating up between the country's Western-backed and more secular minded NTC leadership, and a loose-knit coalition of Islamist militia leaders who played a leading role in the fight to oust Col. Moammar Gadhafi.
Those tensions have been evident elsewhere in the capital as well. In recent days, followers of the rigid Salafi school of Islam have destroyed dozens of gravestones at mosques around Tripoli, saying gravestones are a form of idolatry that violates Islamic law. On Tuesday night, they faced off with local militia men defending a mosque in Tripoli's Zawiyat al-Dahmani neighborhood that had gravestones the hardliners sought to destroy.
NTC head Mustafa Abdel Jalil denounced the grave vandalism at Tuesday's news conference and asked religious authorities to issue a decree against it. "It's not allowed in Islamic law to do this," he said.
Mr. Tarhouni's comments mark a jarring change in tone for Libya's leadership toward Qatar. The tiny sheikhdom was one of the rebels' most robust backers throughout the conflict, providing aid, weapons and advanced communications gear, among other support, for the six-month rebel effort to oust Mr. Gadhafi.Qatar also dispatched teams of special-forces soldiers to train rebel fighters.
But the Qatari aid circumvented the NTC, the official interim governing body established by rebels to oversee territories freed after more than three decades of Gadhafi rule. Instead, Qatar channeled most of its support to independent rebel militias that were dominated by Islamist commanders, according to Western and rebel officials.
Qatari officials deny they have played favorites or armed any faction of the rebels at the expense of another.
Mr. Tarhouni spoke Tuesday during the unveiling of budget documents that cover the NTC's spending from March to late September. Little of the funds needed to arm, equip and supply rebel forces were channeled to fighters through the NTC, according to the records, which were reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
NTC officials have grumbled for months about what they allege is Qatar's favoritism within the rebel ranks. But they have largely avoided airing their criticisms publicly at the risk of alienating a key backer for their struggle against Col. Gadhafi.
Now that Col. Gadhafi is on the run and rebel commanders and political leaders are jockeying for influence, Qatar's support for mostly Islamist forces in the country has become increasingly controversial. Mr. Tarhouni's comments appear to be the most defiant challenge to Qatar by a senior NTC leader to date.
"To any country, I repeat, please do not give any funds or weapons to any Libyan faction without the approval of the NTC," Mr. Tarhouni said. "Do not enter our territory unless NTC approves it."
Write to Charles Levinson at charles.levinson@wsj.com
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