France sends envoy to Libyan rebel stronghold
Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:11 GMT
(Adds minister confirmation, quote)
LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - France has sent a special envoy to the rebel city of Benghazi to liaise with the interim administration, its foreign minister said on Tuesday.
"We have arranged a French diplomatic presence in Benghazi to liaise with the transitional (Libyan) National Council," Alain Juppe told reporters.
A diplomatic source told Reuters earlier on Tuesday that the envoy was already there.
The source said the envoy was diplomat Antoine Sivan, whose role would be to build ties with the resistance on the ground.
Sivan "is not an ambassador because we do not formally recognise a state through the LNC (Libyan National Council)", Juppe said. "But he is a diplomat in charge of relations with the LNC."
France was the first country to recognise the rebels' council as the legitimate interlocutor of the Libyan people and President Nicolas Sarkozy met three of its envoys a few days before air strikes began on Libya.
Juppe said he had met three council envoys on Tuesday during a meeting in London to discuss Libya's future. [nLDE72S2CB] (Reporting by John Irish and Emmanuel Jarry; editing by Keith Weir)
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