Last Saturday, political parties and blocs in Libya's General National Congress (GNC) began a series of meetings to discuss actions to be taken in the remainder of the interim phase. Discussions are informed, in particular, by the growing likelihood of a withdrawal of confidence from the current government headed by Ali Zeidan. In the corridors, MPs are mooting over a possible successor to the interim prime minister whom many claim has been unable to achieve progress on numerous issues, foremost of which are the deteriorating state of security and blockade of petroleum exporting ports in the area known as Libya's “oil crescent” which is controlled by federalist advocates headed by Ibrahim Al-Jadran, former commander of the guards of petroleum facilities. GNC sources told Al-Ahram Weekly that the members of the parliamentary body are agreed that the question of confidence in the Ali Zeidan government has to be brought to a vote in light of its failure to meet the aspirations of the Libyan people who are deeply disappointed at its inability to address what sources describe as the “major” issues and the security deterioration above all. Libya has been plagued by an uninterrupted chain of violence and unrest since the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime in 2011. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the chief controversy in the GNC at present is over who should succeed Zeidan. The names of several possible candidates have been leaked to the press during the past few weeks. The sources added that the various political blocs in the GNC are unanimous in their determination to handle the remainder of the interim period “collectively” and on the basis of decisions thoroughly studied beforehand so as to avert the mistakes of the previous period which, they say, was marred by Zeidan's autocratic tendencies. Among the names of possible successors that have been mooted in the press were Abdel-Baset Igtit, a Libyan businessman who resides in Switzerland and is reputed to have close relations with the West; Judge Nouri Al-Abbar who heads the Supreme Electoral Commission; Libyan Ambassador to the UAE Aref Al-Nayed; and Ali Al-Issawi, former minister of foreign affairs in the former Interim Council. In a press conference held Thursday, official GNC spokesman Omar Hamidan said that the general trend in that assembly was in favour of withdrawing confidence from the current government and appointing a new prime minister to form a new cabinet. The basic problem is to find a candidate to succeed Zeidan, he said, adding that a large contingent of GNC members have been pressing for a no-confidence vote to be held as soon as possible. It would require the approval of a minimum of 120 GNC members for this vote to pass. The GNC originally consisted of 200 members. However, 15 were removed from the body following the passage of the “Political Isolation Law” that bans political participation on the part of persons associated with the Gaddafi regime. Zeidan has survived several previous attempts to remove him as prime minister. It had always been impossible to rally a large enough consensus among his adversaries, whether in the National Forces Alliance (NFA), headed by Mahmoud Jibril, or in the Justice and Construction Party, the political wing of the Libyan chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood. While GNC spokesman Hamidan gave his press conference Thursday, the prime minister was in Turkey where he met with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with the purpose of promoting closer political, economic and commercial bilateral relations. The visit lasted two days, during which the two heads-of-state concluded an agreement that included the creation of a joint strategic cooperation council and an agreement to avert double taxation. In a joint press conference with Erdogan Thursday, Zeidan announced that the Turkish government had pledged 20,000 rifles and the same number of military uniforms as a grant to the Libyan army. Tripoli would also conclude arms deals with Ankara that would include the purchase of a number of helicopters and various frigates, battleships and other naval vessels. Turkey has also agreed to continue with the training of Libyan security forces. The two sides further agreed that Turkey would increase its purchases of Libyan oil while Tripoli would clear the way for Turkish petroleum firms to resume exploration activities in Libya. The prime minister noted that 31 Turkish firms have already returned to work in Libya. He added that joint teams were created with the purpose of overcoming difficulties with regard to old agreements or joint projects that had been stalled, so as to facilitate the return of the rest of the Turkish companies to Libya. Currently, the volume of trade between Libya and Turkey stands at $4 billion and “we hope to see it increase,” Zeidan said, adding that the Libyan government would work to promote cooperation between the Libyan and Turkish central banks and all other banks in order to facilitate financial transactions between the two countries and, thereby, to facilitate the work of Libyan countries operating in Turkey, and vice versa. In another development Thursday, the bodies of a British male and a New Zealand woman were found murdered near the Milita Gas compound west of Tripoli. On Friday, a Libyan security official said that the victims, who worked for a maintenance company operating in an oil field, had been killed execution style, with bullets to the head while they were walking on an isolated strip of beach to the west of Libya. The British government demanded a speedy investigation into the incident in order to bring the perpetrators to justice. It also offered to send out an investigating team. In another security-related development to the east of the country, Libyan army forces in Benghazi arrested two Americans on the charge of being CIA agents. The two men were detained while walking through the campus of Benghazi University Friday. Libyan authorities released them immediately when it was established that they were professional basketball players in the Libyan Hilal Club, which has a branch in Benghazi. Later that Friday and on Saturday, Libyan social networking websites flew into a frenzy at reports that GNC chairman Nouri Abu Sahmain was kidnapped sometime that evening by an armed gang, as had happened to Ali Zeidan several months earlier. Early on Saturday, Abu Sahmain appeared live on television to deny the rumours that he believed had been triggered by a misunderstanding. He explained that the previous evening his neighbours had noticed some armoured vehicles in Fashloum, the district in the capital in which Abu Sahmain lives. Imagining that he was under threat, the neighbours rushed to protect him. “To cut the rumours short, I confirm that I am well and in the president's office,” he continued in the Saturday press conference. “I was not kidnapped. I wish that such things would not happen and, if they do, that they would not give rise to accusations or interpretations that do not serve the country.” While the two incidents above may have been false alarms, the state of security in Libya remains poor. A study produced by the Libyan Ain Studies and Research Foundation stated that more than 120 people were assassinated in Libya in 2013 while many others were the victims of attempted or aborted assassinations. Of the victims, more than 90 had been military or security officers serving in Tripoli, Benghazi, Misrata or other cities, while about 30 were civilians and rights activists. According to the report, eastern Libyan cities saw the lion's share of assassinations. Analysts believe that this is because these cities formed the cradle of the revolution and the chief centre of the country's political activists and new leaders. Benghazi alone witnessed 78 assassinations during 2013 while Derna saw 35. In sharp contrast, only four took place in Tripoli, three in Misrata and one each in Sebha, Tobruk and Ujeilat. Most of the assassinations were carried out by explosive devices attached to or placed beneath the cars of the victims, or by gunmen who fired at their victims, often in drive-by shootings. In the opinion of military affairs expert Colonel Mohamed Mansour, the different methods are evidence of different sets of perpetrators. He added that although it is difficult to know the precise ends of these groups, the fact that so many military and security personnel were targeted is proof of these groups' determination to sow chaos and instability throughout the country so as to obstruct the establishment of institutionalised government and rule by law, which would hamper the movements and activities of these groups.
