The foreign affairs committee of Libya’s parliament in the east of the country on Thursday demanded British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson apologise over shocking remarks about clearing dead bodies form the former Islamic State stronghold of Sirte.
The gaffe-prone politician told a Conservative Party conference on Tuesday evening that Sirte – on Libya’s coast – could become a holiday hotspot once they “clear the dead bodies away”.
British businesses are looking to transform the bombed-out, former IS-held Sirte into “a new Dubai” he said.
“There’s a group of UK business people, wonderful guys who want to invest in Sirte, on the coast – near where Gaddafi was actually captured and executed as some of you may have seen,” he told the audience.
“They literally have a brilliant vision to turn Sirte – with the help of the municipality of Sirte – to turn it into the next Dubai. The only thing they’ve got to do is clear the dead bodies away and then they’ll be there.”
The committee for foreign affairs and international cooperation of Libya’s House of Representatives called the comments “unacceptable”, adding that “it considers it a violation of Libyan sovereignty to talk about British businessmen investing there”.
“The committee demands a clarification from the British prime minister and an apology to the Libyan people,” the statement said, according to Reuters.
The remarks by Johnson led to calls for his resignation, both from political opponents and within his own party.
The comments also shocked many who see it as an insult to the hundreds of civilians who died when UN-backed government forces recaptured the city last December.
The bloody assault saw IS and government forces engaged house-to-house fighting for weeks, while the militants used civilians as human shields as airstrikes and shelling pounded the city.
Once a stronghold of former leader Muammar Gaddafi, the Sirte battle has been one of the bloodiest in the six-years of violence that has plagued the country.
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