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U.S. slaps sanctions on Libyan state broadcaster

05 May 2011 20:07 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on Libya’s state broadcaster and two other government-owned companies, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control ( OFAC) identified Libyan Jamahiriya Broadcasting Corporation, Dalia Advisory Ltd. and Lafico Algeria Holdings as subject to sanctions.

The Libyan state broadcaster owns several radio and television stations in the North African country, Dalia is a London-based investment firm that is 100 percent owned by the Libyan Investment Authority, while Lafico is an Algeria-based subsidiary of the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company, the Treasury said in a statement.

It said the latter two were identified by OFAC as Libyan government entities on March 15.

The sanctions result in the freezing of their assets within U.S. jurisdiction and the prohibition of U.S. persons from engaging in business with them.

"The United Nations and countries around the world are locking down the government of Libya’s assets to prevent the Gaddafi regime from sponsoring further bloodshed," said OFAC Director Adam J. Szubin. "Today’s identifications name additional agencies of the Gaddafi regime, all of their assets should be frozen."

The Treasury has frozen some 30 billion U.S. dollars in assets owned by the Libyan government on U.S. soil. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Rome on Thursday that the United States is trying to free up some of the money to support the Libyan opposition, whose forces have been unable to make gains on the ground though under the cover of NATO-led air raids.