Maha Ellawati BENGHAZI – The President of General National Congress, Mohamed Magarief, and Prime Minister Ali Zidan were in Benghazi Friday for talks with the local council and civil society leaders on the latters' demands for investment and the relocation of NOC to the city. The talks also focused on the security situation there amid concerns that there could be violence on Feb. 15. Cyrenaica federalists have called for demonstrations that day, the second anniversary of the actual start of the revolution. There are fears that pro-Gaddafi regime supporters, militants and others opposed to the course of the revolution, including some federalists, might use the event to mount attacks and destabilize the situation even further. Confirming the meeting, Benghazi city councillor Sadiq Al-Zleitni told the Libya Herald that it followed on from talks in Tripoli last Monday with Zidan and Magarief. He said that at those talks, which he himself had attended along with Benghazi local council leader Mahmoud Abu Raziza and two other councillors, a number of demands had been put to the prime minister and the head of Congress. These were: investment for jobs in Benghazi, proper security there, the return of the NOC in its entirety to the city and the relocation of Libyan oil companies there. At Friday's meeting, Zidan reportedly said that the government was determined to meet its obligations in providing security in the city despite the present difficult circumstances. Magarief dismissed the Cyrenaica federalists and their Cyrenaica Transitional Council. Congress was democratically elected and the only legitimate authority in the country, he said, and was carrying out its duties responsibly. – Libya Herald
