BREAKING NEWS

Libya to give Syrian opposition $100 mln in aid

TRIPOLI - Libya will donate $100 million in humanitarian aid to the Syrian opposition and allow them to open an office in Tripoli, a government spokesman said on Wednesday, in a further sign of its strong support for forces fighting President Bashar Assad.
Representatives from the Syrian National Council (SNC) visited Tripoli this week after Mustafa Abdel, chairman of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), made the initial offer earlier this month to host an SNC office there.
Libya's new government was one of the first foreign states to recognize the SNC as the legitimate authority in Syria in October - a gesture it said showed solidarity following Libya's own struggle to oust Muammar Gaddafi and end 42 years of autocratic rule.
Asked whether Libya, which has its own hefty reconstruction needs after last year's war, could afford such aid, NTC spokesman Mohammed al-Harizy told Reuters: "There is no problem."
However he said it was too early to determine how the aid, including medicine and food, would be delivered: "We will see how this aid can be delivered. We don't know yet."