The Libyan parliament’s foreign affairs committee has condemned as irresponsible and unacceptable Boris Johnson’s remarks about turning the war-torn Libyan city of Sirte into a new Dubai once the dead bodies are removed.
The committee has also called for an explanation and apology from the prime minister, Theresa May.
The intervention by the Tobruk-based parliament will be a diplomatic blow to the foreign secretary. He insists his remarks, widely circulated in Libya, have been misconstrued, but he will not welcome the controversy inside Libya as the UK seeks to influence the political direction of the country, which is at a critical juncture.
The House of Representatives said in a statement on its website that Johnson’s remarks were irresponsible and called on May to clarify and apologise. It also claimed Johnson’s plans to turn Sirte into a version of Dubai were a violation of national sovereignty.
Individual politicians in Libya had previously condemned Johnson’s remarks, which were made at a fringe meeting at the Conservative party conference, but the statement by the foreign affairs committee takes the controversy to a higher level.
The British ambassador to Libya, Peter Millett, is likely to be working hard to provide context to the foreign secretary’s remarks.
The Foreign Office in the summer provided £3m to help with the clearing of improvised explosive devices from Sirte, a Libyan coastal town that was captured by Islamic State for nearly six months last year. Some IEDs were left on dead bodies, and the prospect of British businessmen planning to turn Sirte into a luxury resort has jarred with many Tory MPs.
Johnson later took to Twitter to defend his comments, accusing people “with no knowledge or understanding of Libya” of wanting to “play politics with the appallingly dangerous reality in Sirte.
“The reality there is that the clearing of corpses of Daesh [Isis] fighters has been made much more difficult by IEDs and booby traps,” he said.
“That’s why Britain is playing a key role in reconstruction and why I have visited Libya twice this year in support,” he said in a series of tweets.
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