Libya's UN Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi told the council that he was "surprised" there had been no response to the government's request last week for an exemption from UN sanctions for the Libyan Investment Authority so it can manage frozen assets while they remain under UN sanctions.
Without an exemption, Dabbashi said, the council will be responsible "for all the losses recorded by the Libyan body." "These are profits that we could have collected to the tune of USD 2 billion a year," he said.
"Furthermore, it lost an additional USD 1.6 billion to USD 2.3 billion in what would have been returns on investments if its assets had been properly invested in conservative investments with competitive interest rates," the letter said.
Dabbashi's letter said the Investment Authority had no access to its equity portfolio, and therefore "cannot respond to market changes or currency fluctuations." He added that most of the authority's bonds have matured "and the proceeds are in frozen accounts, where they are earning zero or negative interest rates."
The Libyan ambassador spoke after the council unanimously adopted a resolution extending sanctions against the country until July 31, 2017.
The resolution requested Libya's new Government of National Accord, whose leader arrived in the country by ship on Wednesday, to confirm to the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against the country "as soon as it exercises sole and effective oversight over the National Oil Corportation, the Central Bank of Libya, and the Libyan Investment Authority.