MOSCOW, September 6 (Itar-Tass) —— Time is ripe to raise relations with Libya to the traditionally high official level and to dispatch a new Russian ambassador to that country, the special presidential envoy for Africa, chairman of the Federation Council’s Committee on International Affairs, Mikhail Margelov said on Tuesday.
"Obviously, after the recognition of the TNC as a new legitimate government of Libya time is ripe to raise relations with that important country to the traditionally high official level official," he said.
In this context, Margelov pointed to the willingness of the committee of the upper house of parliament concerned "to consider a candidacy of the new Russian ambassador to Libya as soon as it is proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
The forthcoming scheduled committee meeting is due on September 19, but the FC members, he assured, "will be ready to gather for an extraordinary meeting for that purpose."
In accordance with the Constitution all candidates of Russian ambassadors to foreign countries and representatives of the Russian Federation at international organizations undergo approval procedures at the relevant committees of both chambers of the Federal Assembly of Russia before the decree appointing them is submitted to the president for signature.
The Russian embassy in Tripoli has not interrupted its work for a single day since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Libya in the autumn of 1955. However, since the withdrawal of Russian Ambassador Vladimir Chamov at the beginning of the Libyan political crisis the supreme diplomatic person at the embassy has been charge d'affaires Maxim Maximov.