Pressure intensified on Muammar Qaddafi's regime yesterday with fresh asset freezes and threats to cut off Libya's oil revenues.
Austria and Germany joined a growing list of countries and international bodies trying to staunch the flow of money to Libya after the regime's violent attempts to quash a popular uprising.
The pressure from Austria came in the form of a freeze on assets held by Col Qaddafi and members of his inner circle who the UN and EU targeted in sanctions on Saturday and Monday. The UN named the Libyan leader, his children and 11 other people in its asset-freeze resolution, while the EU's was broader, targeting 26 people close to the regime.
"The Austrian central bank has today adopted a decision whereby all the assets of people concerned by the EU sanctions will be frozen," the regulator said yesterday, adding that Libya's deposits in Austrian banks were worth about €1.2bn (Dh6.09bn).
The freeze adds to multilateral sanctions by the EU and UN and unilateral measures from the UK, US, Canada and Switzerland. David Cohen, a senior US Treasury official, said yesterday his country had frozen about US$30bn (Dh110.18bn) of Libyan assets in accordance with sanctions.
The UAE's central bank governor, Sultan Nasser al Suwaidi, said this week the country would comply with UN sanctions but that the regulator was waiting for official instructions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to direct banks to freeze Libyan assets. Officials at the ministry could not be reached for comment.
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UK authorities said on Monday they had frozen about £1bn (Dh5.97bn) of assets, but indicated the total could rise as investigations progressed.
"This is a strong message for the Libyan regime that violence against its own people is not acceptable," said George Osborne, the UKchancellor of the exchequer.
As part of its sanctions, the UK also prohibited the export of uncirculated banknotes to Libya following a thwarted attempt by the Libyan regime to ship over about £900 million in dinars from the UK company that prints the bills. Officials feared that Col Qaddafi could use the cash to hire mercenaries and buy arms.
Germany brought further pressure to bear yesterday, announcing a freeze of €2m in assets held by one of Col Qaddafi's sons. The country's foreign minister also called for a stop to payments for oil shipments from the country. "We want to stop money flows to the regime," Guido Westerwelle said.
Italy is also reportedly considering tightening the screws on Libya by freezing state assets. A meeting of top financial security officials was scheduled yesterday.
Libya has long-standing financial and cultural ties to Italy, its former colonial power. Libya owns about 6.7 per cent of UniCredit, one of the country's biggest banks, through its central bank and the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), according to Bloomberg News data.
The country also has 7.5 per cent of Juventus Football Club and 2 per cent of Finmeccanica, an Italian conglomerate. Those holdings, coupled with billions of dollars of deposits in Italian banks, make Italy's response to UN and EU sanctions key to their effectiveness.
In addition to its Italian assets, LIA owns a range of UK assets including property in London and 3.27 per cent of Pearson, the publisher of the Financial Times. It is not yet clear to what degree recent sanctions will affect those assets because the EU and UN resolutions name only individuals and not state-owned institutions as targets.
Pearson, however, said yesterday it considered LIA's shares to be "effectively frozen" on advice from lawyers that they are subject to sanctions. The company told LIA it "will not register any transfer or pay any dividend in respect of the shares until further notice".
Founded in 2006, LIA is Libya's main investment vehicle for oil savings, and is estimated to control assets worth $64bn.
