Libya's opposition National Council is "off to a good start" in organizing politically, providing basic services and embracing a vision of human rights, US ambassador Gene Cretz said Friday.
But Cretz, who served in Tripoli until December, said there remained legal hurdles to US recognition of a group that could one day replace Moamer Kadhafi's regime if it falls in Libya's weeks-old armed conflict.
"They are off to a good start in word and deed," Cretz told reporters, praising a document from the council that supported human rights and women's rights. "It was really a very, very good document."
He said there were still legal issues as to whether Washington should recognize the National Council, a step France has already taken, but he did not go into detail.
However, he added: "We are considering the issue of recognition."
He said the National Council, which is based in the eastern city of Benghazi, organized local groups in the cities that were freed from Kadhafi's grip.
"And then from a grassroots movement they then elected their representatives to the main council, a body of 31 which now calls itself the Transitional National Council," Cretz said.
"They appealed for humanitarian aid. They appointed representatives right from the start because they knew that they had to deal with the international community," he said.
One of those is Mahmoud Jibril, who met US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Paris recently.
He added the cou
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