Libya said to have appointed new UN ambassador

Former foreign minister Ali Abdussalam Treki, who served as president of UN General Assembly in 2010, named Libya's UN envoy.

By JORDANA HORN
United Nations 311 (photo credit: REUTERS)
United Nations 311
(photo credit: REUTERS)
NEW YORK – Reports Monday suggested that Libya has appointed a former foreign minister, Ali Abdussalam Treki, as its ambassador to the United Nations, replacing an envoy who renounced Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
United Nations representatives confirmed Monday that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s office had received correspondence from Libyan authorities naming Treki as Libya’s designated permanent representative. The UN has also received a letter, currently under consideration, withdrawing the credentials of Libya’s current permanent representative, Muhammad Shalgham, and deputy permanent representative, Ibrahim Dabbashi.
Martin Nesirky, a spokesman for Ban, said he was unaware of any recent contact with Treki by the secretary-general.
Treki was a UN ambassador for many years, serving from 1982 to 1984, from 1986 to 1990 and most recently in 2003. He was Libya’s ambassador to France from 1995 to 1999, its permanent representative to the League of Arab States in Cairo from 1991 to 1994, and Libya’s foreign minister from 1977 to 1980.
Treki was elected president of the UN General Assembly in 2010, where he served for the year and became popular among non-democratic nations at the UN.
In 1983, he urged member states in a speech at the UN to “look around New York. Who are the owners of pornographic film operations and houses? Is it not the Jews who are exploiting the American people and trying to debase them? If we succeed in eliminating that entity, we shall by the same token save the American and European peoples.”
Recognition of countries is a matter for member states, Nesirky said. Libya is a recognized UN member state, and, as with all member states, can designate whom it chooses as its representative at the United Nations.