Libya's premier announced a "total halt" on Thursday to co-operation with Italy, saying no future deals would be signed with energy group ENI because of Italy's participation in a Nato bombing campaign. "ENI is finished and that is for good," Baghdadi Mahmudi told journalists, denouncing Italy for having "violated" a non-aggression pact with Libya signed three years ago.
"We will no longer work with ENI and Italy will have no future petrol contracts in Libya," Mahmudi said. He estimated that ENI had invested around $30 billion (21 billion euros) in the Libyan petroleum sector. In Milan, an ENI spokesman declined to comment on the announcement. Mahmudi said that, "under the agreement signed and adopted by the parliaments of the two countries, Italy agreed not to attack Libya.
"Unfortunately, since the start of the aggression, Italian warplanes have been killing our children, destroying our houses and our country's infrastructure," he added. However, the premier did not write off ties with France and the United States, saying Tripoli was reaching out to these two countries and is "ready" to negotiate oil contracts with them because they "are beginning to reconsider their position on Atlantic aggression" against Libya. "If they take a step in our direction, we will follow suit," Mahmudi said.
He said his country, shaken for five months by rebellion, would renegotiate oil contracts with priority given to Russia, China and Latin America. Russia abstained from the UN Security Council vote on the resolution that opened the way for international intervention in Libya, and Moscow has since remained critical of the objectives and intensity of Nato's air strikes. China has held its line of non-interference in the conflict, although several rounds of contacts have taken place of late between Chinese officials and representatives of the Libyan opposition.