Libya's interim leaders hope to ask the Security Council to end UN authorization for a no-fly zone and NATO intervention by the end of October but need a few days to decide, a Libyan UN envoy said today.
Libyan Deputy UN Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi told the 15-nation council that Libya's people are "looking forward to terminating the no-fly zone over Libya as well as terminating the mandate accorded by Security Council resolution 1973 to protect civilians as soon as possible."
Mr Dabbashi said that Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) had not yet made an official decision on whether to request termination of the UN mandate.
Apparently responding to calls from various senior UN officials for an investigation into the circumstances behind the death of Muammar Gaddafi after his capture, Mr Dabbashi denied that NTC soldiers had summarily executed him.
He said Gaddafi died of wounds he had sustained prior to his capture.
He added that the Libyans were conducting an investigation.
Meanwhile, a senior Libyan military official with the NTC has claimed that Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam and former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi are proposing to hand themselves into the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
Saif al-Islam has been on the run since Libyan forces overran his father's home town of Sirte at the weekend. He is thought to be somewhere near Libya's southern border with Niger.
However, the ICC has said it has no confirmation that the men are proposing to hand themselves over to the war crimes court.
In June, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Gaddafi, Saif and al-Senussi on charges of crimes against humanity after the UN Security Council referred the Libyan situation to the court in February.
