The oil port crisis gripping central Libya, where militias affiliated with the federalists from Cyrenaica seeking greater autonomy for their region have blockaded the country's major oil exporting ports, escalated dangerously during the past two weeks. The militias allowed an oil tanker flying a North Korean flag but operated by an Egyptian-based company into Al-Sadra Port where it was loaded with around 234,000 barrels of crude. Central authorities in Tripoli charged that the so-called Political Bureau of Cyrenaica had sold this oil without their approval and that the shipment was illegal. With the tanker's entrance into Sadra tensions between central authorities and Cyrenaican federalists spiked more sharply than ever. Officials in Tripoli threatened to sink the tanker if it left the port before having fulfilled its obligations under law, and the speaker of the General National Council (GNC), Nouri Abu Sahmain, issued a decree to “liberate” the oil ports by force if the federalists fail to heed government orders to lift the blockade of the ports which has been in effect since June 2013. Abu Sahmain's edict sparked diverse reactions. While many voiced support, other political and social forces called for dialogue and a peaceful solution that would enable national port exports to resume so that their revenues could salvage an economy that has been reeling since the closure of the ports over eight months ago. The Libyan economy is heavily based on oil revenues and it had become almost entirely dependant on this resource since the revolution. Many were alarmed by the spectre of renewed civil war, over oil this time, following the Abu Sahmain edict, especially following reports that armed forces under the command of the Libyan chiefs-of-staff had begun to march eastward. The force is primarily made up of the Libyan Shield, Western Zone, which is primarily drawn from militias controlled by the northwestern city of Misrata and which is considered one of the strongest of the plethora of militia forces that have proliferated throughout the country since the fall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011. At the same time, militia forces affiliated with the Cyrenaican federalists mobilised under the command of Cyrenaica Political Bureau Chief Ibrahim Al-Jadran in order to intercept the forces approaching from the west with the aim of liberating the oil ports. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday intermittent clashes between the Cyrenaica militias and the Libyan Shield forces claimed numerous wounded on both sides. The two sides were fighting to secure control over oil fields located in the vicinity Zala oasis near Sirte. By nightfall on Saturday, Al-Jadran's forces had retaken control of the area. There followed renewed calls by political and social figures for dialogue between Tripoli and the federalists. In response, Abd Rabbo Al-Barasi, who heads the so-called Executive Bureau of Cyrenaica (the region's unilaterally declared autonomous government), issued a statement in which he stipulated that GNC Speaker Nouri Abu Sahmain would have to retract his decree calling for the use of force to dismantle the oil port blockade before any dialogue could take place. He stressed that Cyrenaica was committed to safeguarding the rights of all other Libyan regions to their share of oil sales. As these developments were unfolding, the US Defence Department announced that in the early hours of Monday, 17 March, units of US Navy Seals had boarded and taken control of Morning Glory 1 that had been illicitly loaded with crude oil at Al-Sadra Port. Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby stated that the operation took place in international waters south of Cyprus and had been carried out at the request of Libyan and Cypriot authorities. Kirby affirmed that there had been no casualties when US forces took control of “the commercial tanker Morning Glory 1, a stateless vessel seized earlier this month by three armed Libyans”. He added that the operation had been approved by US President Barack Obama and that it had been carried out just after 02:00 GMT in international waters southeast of Cyprus. The Navy Seals that carried out the operation belonged to the Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR). They had boarded the oil freighter from the guided missile destroyer USS Roosevelt (DDG-80) that, according to Kirby, “provided helicopter support and served as a command and control and support platform for the other members of the force assigned to conduct the mission”. The Morning Glory was “carrying a cargo of oil owned by the Libyan government's National Oil Company. The ship and its cargo were illicitly obtained from the Libyan port of Al-Sidra”, Kirby said in his statement, adding that the tanker was on its way to a Libyan port with a team of US sailors aboard. The Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation confirmed that the tanker was on its way to a Libyan port. Libyan news website Bawabet Al-Wasat cited Deputy Foreign Minister Abu Qaiqas as saying that the US forces had intercepted that tanker “in response to a request from the Libyan government and the Libyan public prosecutor”. Abu Qaiqas went on to state that once North Korean and Egyptian statements clarified that the vessel did not belong to either of them, “it became clear that it was stateless, which facilitated the operation.” He explained that US authorities had delayed the intervention until they could ascertain its legal status. However, the political situation in Tripoli took a sudden turn later Monday when a group of GNC members submitted a letter to the GNC president and president's office protesting the decree issued by Abu Sahmain the previous week. Decree 42 of 8 March 2014 calling for the creation of an armed force to liberate the oil ports was issued by Abu Sahmain in his capacity as supreme commander of the armed forces. In their letter, the GNC members stated that since the Constitutional Declaration of August 2011 stipulated that the supreme commander of the armed forces was the GNC, Abu Sahmain should have first submitted the decree to the GNC for discussion and a vote. They also pointed out that the month-long mandate that the GNC had given to its president and vice-president had expired before the decree was issued. Therefore, the decree was illegal and the matter had to be brought before the GNC so that the assembly could take the appropriate action. In addition, they cautioned that the decree could ignite a civil war, especially in light of the proliferation of weapons, the lack of discipline among militias charged with carrying out the decree, and the likelihood that they would not obey the orders of the chiefs-of-staff. GNC members Hana Jibril, Najah Abdel-Salam, Amina Mohamed, Asmaa Amara, Halima Abdel-Matlub, Soad Al-Qadira, Fatma Eissa, Ahlam Abdullah, Najia Al-Sadqi, Soad Mohamed, Zeinab Haroun and Abdel Fattah Saad signed the letter. All but the last are women. In a tangential development, the GNC voted to dismiss Chief-of-General Staff General Jadallah Al-Obeid for having refused to carry out the GNC order to break the blockade on the oil ports and pursue the tanker. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly by phone, sources close to Al-Obeid explained that he had been under heavy pressure from the Obeidat tribe, of which he is a member, not to intervene in order to break the blockade on the oil ports. His failure to carry out GNC instructions had hampered Libyan efforts to pursue the tanker as it fled the port.
