Context
The international contact group for Libya has decided to establish a short-term “trust fund” in order to help donors channel assets to the anti-government Transitional National Council in the city of Benghazi. In a declaration issued at the end of a one-day meeting in the Qatari capital Doha on Wednesday, the group urged long-term Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qaddafi to resign. The new financial mechanism will enable foreign donations to directly go to Qaddafi’s opponents- perhaps from the frozen assets of Qaddafi’s regime. The group also warned that as many as 3.6 million Libyans may require humanitarian aid as a result of civil war in the country.
