Libya Security Highlights (October 24 – 30, 2022)

NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUES

• The Chairman of the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), Ali Mahmoud Hassan, has accused Belgium’s Prince Laurent of blackmailing him in a failed attempt to recover €50 million Laurent claims he is owed by the Libyan Ministry for Agriculture. In a statement, Hassan claimed that Laurent “used his influence and directed his country’s authorities to issue an order to arrest me,” adding that neither he nor the LIA had anything to do “with the alleged debts.”

• On the occasion of the disarmament week, UN Special Envoy to Libya reiterated “the UN’s commitment to providing technical support to Libya’s 5+5 Joint Military Committee (JMC) to accelerate the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, including placing the regularization of arms under the sole control of the state.”
• Sea-Watch, a German non-governmental organization that operates in the Mediterranean Sea to conduct rescue operations for migrants, released on Wednesday footage in which the Libyan Coast Guard appears to threaten to shoot down the NGO’s plane “by some missiles”. The incident reportedly took place on Tuesday afternoon, October 25, when an airplane operated by Sea-Watch “sighted an overcrowded inflatable boat with about 70 people in distress,” according to the German NGO.

• A Turkish military aircraft conducted surveillance mission over the central Mediterranean, reports Itamilradar website, which is specialized in monitoring military aircrafts. A Turkish Air Force Boeing E-7T (reg. 13-004 – f/n TURAF42), which took off from Konya AB, was orbiting south of Sicily halfway between Malta and Libya, according to Itamilradar.
• Forty organizations have urged civil society to demonstrate against the Italy-Libya memorandum during a demonstration organized  in Rome’s Esquilino square. “If by November 2 the Italian government will not decide for its suspension,” the NGOs said in a joint statement. “The memorandum will be automatically renewed for another three years,” it added. “It is an agreement that has had dramatic consequences for the past five years on the life of thousands of migrant and refugee women, men and children. From 2017 to October 2022, nearly 100,000 people have been intercepted at sea by Libyan coast guards and forcibly taken back to Libya, a country which cannot be considered safe.”

NATIONAL POLITICS AND SOCIAL ISSUES

• Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, prime minister of the Tripoli-based government, said  that his executive authority is a “fundamental part of the last transitional stage before going to the elections”. Dbeibeh made his remarks on Twitter as part of his declaration of support for the U.N. Security Council Resolution 2656, adopted on Friday, which recognizes the desire of the Libyan people for elections and urges the Libyan political institutions and key stakeholders to agree on a roadmap to deliver these elections as soon as possible.
• The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution to extend the mandate of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) for a year, till October 31, 2023. The extension, authorised by Resolution 2656, is the first substantive renewal of UNSMIL’s mandate since September 2021. In the past year or so, the Security Council had to approve five technical rollovers to keep the mandate going as council members struggled to agree on the leadership structure of the mission.
• Libya’s Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush held talks in Tripoli with the Chargé d’Affairs of the U.S. Embassy in Libya, Leslie Ordeman, focusing on the long-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections in the country.

• The Chargé d’Affairs of the U.S. Embassy in Libya, Leslie Ordeman, held talks in Tripoli on “transparency and financial accountability” with several cabinet members of the Tripoli-based government led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh. Ordeman met with Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Adel Juma, Communications Minister Walid Al-Lafi and Dbeibeh’s own cousin Ibrahim Dbeibeh. According to the American Embassy, they discussed “efforts to increase transparency and financial accountability in the public sector for sustainable and inclusive development throughout Libya”.
• Mostafa Mihraje, France’s new ambassador to Libya, arrived in Tripoli to officially assume his role. Following his arrival, Mihraje met with Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush to discuss the situation in the country. According to a statement by the Libyan foreign ministry, Mihraje expressed his country’s intention to reopen its embassy in Tripoli and facilitate visa procedures for Libyans.

• The U.N. Special Envoy to Libya Abdoulaye Bathily was briefed by the country’s Chairman of High Council of State, Khaled Al-Mishri, on the outcomes of the latter’s meeting Speaker of the House of Representative, Aguila Saleh, which took place in Morocco few days ago. During their joint talks, which took place at Al-Mishri’s office in Tripoli, the two also discussed “the latest developments in the country and ways to resolve the current political crisis, through consensus on sound constitutional foundations,” according to a statement by the Libyan council.

• UN Special envoy to Libya Abdoulaye Bathily said in his remarks to Security Council that the political deadlock persists with no clear end in sight to the prolonged stalemate over the executive authority. Bathily pointed out that efforts to resolve the remaining outstanding issues related to the constitutional basis for elections do not appear to lead to concrete action by the relevant actors, further delaying prospects for the holding of inclusive, free and fair elections aimed at ending the transition and reinstating the legitimacy of institutions.

  

• The Prime Minister of Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, has given instructions to his ministers to prevent conferences or meetings with media representatives from taking place without his permission. The announcement was made in a Dbeibeh’s letter to the Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, Adel Jumaa. In the letter, the 63-year-old premier pointed out that these instructions come after some ministers have released statements to the press relating to the work of the government and their departments, providing journalists with sensitive information and data.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

• Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush participated at a “preparatory ministerial meeting” of the Arab League Council ahead of the organization’s summit on November 1-2 in Algeria. According to a statement by the Libyan Foreign Ministry, the meeting aims to “strengthen coordination and consultation among Arab countries to confront regional and international developments”.
• A meeting of the 5+5 Libyan Joint Military Committee with U.N. Special Envoy to Libya Abdoulaye Bathily will be held tomorrow at the Ouagadougou Palace in Sirte, Italian news agency Nova reports, citing unnamed Libyan sources. In his first briefing to the U.N. Security Council on the situation in Libya, Bathily said that he intends to bring together the committee, which is made up of military leaders from eastern and western Libya, and relaunch the so-called “military track”, the only surviving trace of the UN plan which provided for three paths (economic, political and military) with the aim of reunifying the country.

• The Libyan outgoing Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, in his capacity as Defence Minister, signed two military cooperation agreements with Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar. Dbeibeh’s government said the first agreement is to raise the efficiency of military aviation capabilities in Libya, with the help of Turkish expertise in this field.
• The prime ministers of the two rival governments of Libya have both arrived in Istanbul, Turkey, Italian news agency Nova reports. Libya is torn between the administration of Fathi Bashagha, who was selected by the House of Representatives to lead the country as interim premier last February, and that of Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, who refuses to relinquish power and remains recognized as the country’s leader by the international community.

• The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, announced an upcoming visit to Libya to strengthen cooperation with the Libyan authorities. Khan made his announcement in a press release from the International Criminal Court, welcoming the arrest of two people suspected of being involved in the smuggling of migrants from Africa to Europe via Libya.