NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUES
- The Head of Teachers Union Abdulnabi Al-Naf was released on Sunday after he was arrested last Thursday at Tripoli’s Mitiga Airport. Al-Naf spoke to reporters following his release and explained the circumstances of his arrest. He said that a “security force”, which he did not name, detained him upon his arrival at the airport based on an arrest warrant issued by the Attorney-General.
- The humanitarian ship Ocean Viking rescued on Saturday 37 migrants who were shipwrecked in the Mediterranean near the coast of Libya, said the NGO SOS Méditerranée, owner of the vessel that will be able to dock in the Italian port of Ancona. The migrants were aboard “a small overloaded inflatable boat in international waters near Libya,” the NGO said in a statement.
- A force of the Libyan National Army (LNA) has stopped 360 migrants from crossing Mediterranean through Sirte coast. LNA’s 128th Enhanced Brigade said it hand the migrants over to the Direction for Combatting Illegal Migration (DCIM), along with their belongings, money, mobile phones and passports.
- International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Tuesday that 1,088 migrants were intercepted and returned to Libya in the period of 25 – 31 December 2022. In 2022, according to IOM, 24,684 were intercepted and returned to Libya, 525 died, and 848 went missing on the Central Mediterranean route. In 2021, 32,425 were intercepted and returned to Libya, IOM statistics say.
- Clashes erupted on Tuesday in the city of Al-Ajaylat, roughly 80 kilometers west of Tripoli, between armed groups, according to the Red Crescent, which releaesd a statement calling on residents take precautions. The Red Crescent did not report any casualties so far, but urged residents to “stay away as much as possible from windows and doors during the clashes, and avoid going out without any coordination.”
NATIONAL POLITICS AND SOCIAL ISSUES
- Speaker of Libya’s House of Representatives, Aguila Saleh, and chairman of the High Council of State (HCS), Khaled Al-Mishri, have agreed to hold another round of talks in Tobruk “in the coming days” after achieving a breakthrough in today’s negotiations in Cairo over the constitutional basis for elections in the country, announced a member of the HCS. Belkassem Qzit, who was also part of the HCS delegation that accompanied Al-Mishri to Cairo, expects the House and the Council to vote on the constitutional document that was announced today in Cairo “to become effective.”
- Central Bank of Libya (CBL) announced that public revenues amounted to 134.4 billion dinars (about $28 billion) during the past year, while public spending amounted to 127.9 billion dinars (about $26.8 billion). In his monthly statement of public revenue and expenditure, which covers the period from January 1 to December 31, 2022, revenues were distributed at 105.5 billion dinars from oil sales, 13.6 billion from oil royalties, 11.4 billion from oil royalties for previous years, and 1.4 billion dinars from taxes.
- Libya’s Attorney General, Al-Siddiq Al-Sour, met on Tuesday, January 3, with the First Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Fawzri Al-Nuwairi, and other members of parliament, for talks on cooperation. A statement released by the Attorney-General’s office said that both sides discussed “issues of common interest” and “enhancing cooperation between the two authorities.” They also reportedly discussed “enhancing the effectiveness of the Attorney-General Office’s communication” with parliamentary committees specialized in “evaluating legislative actions”.
- Member of the State Council in Tripoli, Mama Suleiman, has expected that the presidential and parliamentary elections would take place in Libya this year if the House of Representatives and the State Council agreed on the legal framework for organizing them. “Resolving contentious points on the constitutional basis will be the focus of Aguila Saleh and Khaled Al-Mashri’s meeting in the coming days. I expect elections to be held during this year if the legal framework is agreed upon,” Mama said in a press statement.
- Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, announced on Monday, January 2, that his government of intends to hold the Libyan parliamentary and presidential elections this year. Speaking during a cabinet meeting, the Tripoli-based premier attacked the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aguila Saleh, and chairman of the High Council of State, Khaled Al-Mishri. He accused them of “planning suspicious deals” and causing “repeated disappointments to the Libyan people because of their pursuit of power”. Dbeibeh did not specify the exact time or plan for holding the elections.
- The foreign minister of the Libyan government appointed by the Parliament, Hafed Gaddur, in a New Year’s message implicitly urged the outgoing premier Abdel Hamid Dbeibah and several countries to stop sabotaging Libya and negatively interfering in its affairs. “To some personalities who have contributed to poisoning the political climate and instigating divisions”, wrote the head of diplomacy of Prime Minister Fathi Bashagha installed in Sirte and Benghazi on Facebook, “I say to them: hands off Libya”.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
- France said it “fully supports” the United Nations in its call on House of Representatives and the High Council of State to finalize the constitutional basis for the elections after achieving a breakthrough during negotiations in Cairo last week. In a statement via Twitter on Sunday, the French embassy in Libya affirmed the need to reach a “Libyan-Libyan solution to resolve the political crisis through elections within a specific timeframe.”
- The Libyan Parliament Member, Abdulsalam Nassiya, said the Cairo agreement between the Parliament Speaker, Aguila Saleh, and the High Council of State Head, Khaled al-Mishri, formed “guidelines that need specific mechanisms of action.” In a statement, Nassiya welcomed any steps towards holding elections and a way out of the political, economic and social crisis. The MP stated that presenting the draft constitutional rule to the two houses without agreeing on the mechanism of consensus on the different opinions resulting from the discussion of the two houses may lead to delay or stumbling in its issuance.
- A national consultative meeting between Libyan political and Islamist figures was held at the Elite World Grand Hotel in Istanbul in Istanbul, Italian news agency Nova reports. Citing unnamed Libyan sources, Nova stated that the meeting was organized by Ali al-Sallabi, a Libyan Islamist politician known for his close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, under sponsorship from Qatar. Among the guests were Abdel Hakim Belhaj, former head of a terrorist organization called the Libyan Fighting Group, and former Deputy Prime Minister and presidential candidate Ahmed Maiteeq.
- The United States government has declined to establish a Libyan Libyan consulate in Houston, Texas for the time being, according to multiple press reports. The U.S. State Department reportedly informed Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh’s government of the decision, citing the interim nature of Tripoli-based authority and its failure to hold election in 2021 as the reasons for halting the plan. Nevertheless, the U.S. expressed willingness to inaugurate the Libyan consulate “once Libyan institutions allow for a credible path to elections,” as per media reports.
