Libya, torn by a growing political divide that threatens to engulf its oilfields, could become the next Syria if it does not patch its divided government and get help battling militants, the country’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.
“If we don’t do the right thing now, in two years’ time we could have — hopefully not — a repeat of what happened in Syria in 2014 because the international community didn’t react adequately,” Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Dayri said in an interview.
Dayri represents the internationally recognized government in eastern Libya, which is locked in an increasingly violent struggle for power with a rival faction, known as Libya Dawn, that seized control in the capital of Tripoli in August.
In an ominous turn of events, a force allied to the self-declared Tripoli government earlier this month moved to seize Libya’s two biggest oil export ports — Es Sider and Ras Lanuf. Fighting has since spread to a third oil port.
Dayri repeated his government’s charge that forces attacking the oil facilities included elements of Ansar al-Sharia. The US has designated Ansar al-Sharia as a terrorist group and accuses it of involvement in the deadly September 2012 attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.
US officials said that while they see Ansar al-Sharia as a problem, the name is sometimes used loosely as a label that covers other militant groups, including the Islamic State and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Various Islamic militants — as well as secularist groups — are trying to take over the oil facilities, the officials say.
Asked whether he was worried that Libya was not high on the list of US President Barack Obama’s priorities, Dayri said: “I do worry about that.”
He said he spoke to a UN session in New York last Friday and met with officials in Washington to “draw the international community’s attention to the rising threats of international terrorism in Libya and the need to fight it.”
Dayri said the eastern-based government of Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani faces what he called “a serious financial crunch, funding crunch” and may seek international loans.
Al-Thani’s’ government does not have access to oil revenues routed to the central bank in Tripoli.
“We can get loans, and this is what we may be seeking to achieve in the coming days and weeks,” Dayri said, adding that he held discussions at the World Bank and IMF on Monday night.
Also on Tuesday, UN Special Envoy for Libya Bernadino Leon informed the UN Security Council that the rival factions in Libya have agreed in principle to hold a new round of peace talks early next year.
Dayri said his government remains committed to the peace talks, adding: “It goes without saying that the process will be difficult.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the