France wants the UN Security Council to add Libyan Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia to its terror list, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said declaring Libya a "terrorist powderkeg."
Active in Libya's second city Benghazi, Ansar al-Sharia is already on the US terror list and the Libyan parliament has also labelled them terrorists.
"France has requested that Ansar al-Sharia be added to the Security Council terror list, the so-called Al-Qaeda list," Fabius yesterday told a meeting on Libya held on the sidelines of the UN Security Council.
"We must ensure that these groups face sanctions," said Fabius, who described Libya as a "terrorist powderkeg."
Inclusion on the UN terror list means members of the group are subject to visa bans, asset freezes and an arms embargo.
Oil-rich Libya has been rocked by political instability since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed veteran dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
Three years later, Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani's government and the internationally recognized parliament elected in June are being challenged by rival, Islamist-backed administrations.
The country is also being torn apart by fighting between Islamist and nationalist militias.
