Mahmoud Jebril, a U.S.-educated technocrat who has become the public face of the rebel Transitional National Council, is making the rounds in Washington seeking greater support for rebels struggling to end Muammar Gaddafi’s 41-year rule.
Rebels fighting against Gaddafi for almost three months are in control of the east of the country, while Gaddafi’s forces control the capital, Tripoli, and nearly all of the west.
NATO bombed Gaddafi’s compound on Thursday and air strikes by the Western security alliance helped the rebels score a major victory earlier this week when they seized control of the airport in Misrata, the only western city under rebel control.
Jebril, the head of the council’s executive bureau and described by some as a de facto prime minister, has received a warm welcome in Washington, where he has met lawmakers drafting legislation to free up some frozen Gaddafi government assets.
On Friday, he is to meet national security adviser Tom Donilon at the White House, giving President Barack Obama an opportunity to drop by should he wish to see the rebel leader.
Speaking at the Brookings Institution think tank, Jebril bemoaned the opposition’s financial constraints and sought to speed up U.S. and other efforts to free up assets that have been frozen by the United States and others.
“We are facing a very acute … financial problem because of the frozen assets,” Jebril said. “So I would like to seize this opportunity … to call on the United States administration to help us.”
Jebril said some $180 million could be released but that the rebels needed much more, citing estimates they would require $3 billion over the next six months and suggesting they could run out of funds within four or five weeks.
‘WHEN (ARE) WE GOING TO GET THE MONEY?’
The so-called Libya Contact Group of nations backing the opposition to Gaddafi agreed last week on the idea of creating a fund to help meet the rebels’ needs.
“We have the structure but still don’t have the money. The question is, when (are) we going to get the money?” Jebril said.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry told Reuters he was still working on the legislation and could not recall the exact amount, adding, “It’s not in the billions.”
If approved, the U.S. money is expected to help the opposition meet humanitarian needs.
Already embroiled in two costly wars at a time of rising political pressure to reduce spending, the Obama administration has been a reluctant participant in Libya.
While the United States took the lead in attacking Libyan air defenses to impose a no-fly zone to protect civilians from Gaddafi’s forces, it has since taken on a secondary role.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking to Marines at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, said the military spending on operations enforcing the no-fly zone and protecting civilians in Libya was “somewhere in the ballpark of $750 million.”
The Pentagon estimated the Libya costs in early April at $608 million and rising at about $40 million a month, which a Pentagon official said was roughly in line with Gates’ estimate.
Gates told the Marines the United States knew little about the rebels, other than some of the people at the top of the opposition.
“This is one of the reasons why there has been such a reluctance, at least on our part, to provide any kind of lethal assistance to the opposition,” Gates said.
He said the Obama administration had seen reports of extremists fighting for the opposition.
“We see information and we hear from the opposition that they’re trying to isolate these people and get them out of the movement because they realize the risks associated with that in terms of international support,” Gates said.
Speaking to reporters, Jebril denied there were al Qaeda members among the rebels but said their forces did include 11 people who had lived in Afghanistan and subsequently went through a “reconciliation” process with the Gaddafi government.
“They are just ordinary citizens,” he said, saying they had joined the uprising against Gaddafi. “We don’t have al Qaeda in our freedom fighters on the ground or in the council.”