Exclusive: Al-Zantouti: “Oil-for-Food Cannot Be Implemented Due to Name Conflicts Over the Central Bank”

Financial expert Khaled Al-Zantouti stated in an interview with Sada Economic Newspaper regarding the possibility of the Libyan economy reaching an oil-for-food scenario if Al-Kabeer does not return: “Based on experience, I do not want to mention specific names, but generally, I do not believe it is easy to put Libya under the oil-for-food principle in exchange for a UN decision. Under the current global conditions, the world does not care about individuals and names but rather about its own interests, particularly the interests of the permanent member states. These countries do not care if Libyan funds are stolen or if Libyans suffer or live. Conflicts, wars, divisions, liquidity issues, long queues, questionable credits, unregulated spending, and currency devaluation have been visible to the world for years. The world has never acted to protect those funds or alleviate Libyan suffering. What matters to the world is that oil is sold, based on the interests of its companies only, and it does not matter even if oil stops completely, as the amount of Libyan oil produced is limited and has no significant impact on the global market, with its share not exceeding 1%, which can be compensated by other countries.”

He also said: “Frankly, I wished such a step had been taken a long time ago, at least to prevent this bloody, selfish conflict that we have suffered from over the past years, which revolves around money and power. However, now it is not easy at all to make such a decision under the current global circumstances. Even the previous decision to freeze foreign assets was made at the request of Libyan agencies and under global conditions different from the current situation. We are now suffering from the erosion of those frozen assets and our substantial losses day by day, with no permission even to manage them through banks, which we have requested for years.”

Al-Zantouti continued: “Finally, I say that the decision to implement oil-for-food cannot be made due to conflicts over the Central Bank and under the current global conditions. The only exception might be a complete agreement among legislative authorities to ask the UN to take such a step, which I believe is impossible.”

He added: “It is more appropriate for Libyans to agree on the necessity and importance of the Central Bank’s independence and to manage it with a specialized and completely independent board of directors, free from any ideological, regional, or personal interests, to perform its true functions in shaping and implementing monetary policies in full harmony with other financial and commercial policies and in accordance with international standards. This is what I hope for.”

He concluded: “The Central Bank remains the treasury of Muslims in Libya, and we must adhere to the commands of the Almighty in preserving and investing it for the benefit of this suffering people.”