Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Thani stepped down Sunday saying he and his family had been the victims of a “traitorous” armed attack the previous day. Leaked reports have referred to pressure exerted on the premier's choice of members of his cabinet. According to reports, pressure was targeting mainly key posts in the new government namely; Defence, Interior and Finance in addition to head of Intelligence. Libya's parliament had tasked Al-Thani with forming a new cabinet a month after it ousted his predecessor for failing to rein in the lawlessness gripping the North African country. Thani, 60, stated that he would not accept the premiership after a “traitorous attack” on himself and his family, but said he would stay on in a caretaker capacity until a new prime minister is appointed. Al-Thani was defence minister under the previous premier, Ali Zeidan, who himself was briefly abducted by militiamen last year. Lawmakers voted Zeidan out of office last month after he failed to end a standoff with rebels occupying key ports used to export Libyan oil. A breakthrough in the many months-old port crisis was reached only last week. An interim agreement was signed between representatives of the interim government in Tripoli and representatives of the pro-federalist drive in Cyrenaica in eastern Libya led by Ibrahim Al-Jadhran. Al-Jadhran, formerly commander of the Petroleum Facilities Guards, broke away from the central government in May last year in order to join the movement calling for the establishment of a federalist system in Libya. He is currently director of the political bureau of the unilaterally declared Cyrenaica federal region of which Abd- Rabbu Al-Barassi is the director of the executive bureau. The agreement, signed 6 April, a copy of which has been obtained by Al-Ahram Weekly, contains six points: the first calling on the Libyan Justice Ministry to form a new commission to investigate the pro-federalists' allegations of financial and administrative wrongdoings in the petroleum sector since the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime. The commission is to include six experts from different areas of the country. Another point calls on the Libyan cabinet to issue a decree to reinstate the headquarters of the Petroleum Facilities Guards (Central Zone) and to restructure the administration of this agency in a consensual manner satisfactory to all sides. In addition, the government shall reimburse all outstanding payments due to its members as well as all other outstanding payments related to pensions and other legitimate expenses of the agency to the date of the agreement. The text then stated: “Immediately after this agreement is signed, the ports of Al-Zueitina and Al-Hariqa will be surrendered to the authority of the state and the necessary steps will be taken to prevent strikers from returning or any obstruction whatsoever, so as to permit work to resume as normal. This will take place as of Sunday, 6 April 2014.” The subsequent point provided for the handover of Al-Sidra and Ras Lanuf ports and all other facilities “in accordance with measures agreed upon by the signatories of this documents and with the same mechanism, within two to four weeks of the date of this agreement.” In accordance with the final point, upon the implementation of the agreement mediators would strive to prevail upon the public prosecutor to halt all legal proceedings related to the closure of the ports and the halt of petroleum exports and, specifically, the lawsuits brought against Khaled Said Al-Jadhran and all other members of the Petroleum Facilities Guards who were involved in the blockade of the oil terminals. However, the halt to legal proceedings “will not apply in any manner to those whom investigations have proven implicated in the downing of the missing MI-35 aircraft causing the death of five heroes of the Libyan Air Force.” The agreement was signed by the director of the Political Bureau of the Region of Cyrenaica Ibrahim Said Al-Jadhran, the director of the Executive Bureau of the Region of Cyrenaica Abd-Rabbu Abdel-Hamid Al-Barassi, Mansour Al-Salehin Yassin, Saleh Ibrahim Abdel-Jawwad, Abdel-Salam Mohamed Badr and General National Congress member Al-Sherif Al-Wafi. Although the Libyan government repeatedly denied having engaged in negotiations with those responsible for the closure of the oil terminals, the Benghazi branch of the Justice Ministry noted on its official Facebook page that it “blessed” the agreement, which can be taken as a sign of the central government's tacit approval. Indeed, informed Libyan sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the press, told the Weekly by phone that the Justice Ministry had been the official sponsor of the agreement. According to these sources, the government's denials were a form of precautionary face-saving in the event that the mediators failed to make progress in the talks aimed at reopening the oil ports and securing the resumption of petroleum exports to European and world markets. Earlier this month, Omar Al-Hassi had emerged as a possible successor to Zeidan. However, ongoing disputes between various political factions have so far forestalled consensus over this candidate. Al-Hassi hails from the east of the country. If political forces did reach a consensus over him, it would be reminiscent of a mechanism applied during the previous era when it was generally the case that Gaddafi would appoint an easterner as prime minister and a candidate from western Libya as speaker of parliament. It was one of Gaddafi's preferred mechanisms for maintaining political balances within the framework of the country's tribal composition. Omar Al-Hassi is an academic and professor at the University of Benghazi. A member of the Al-Hassa tribe, which is based in the Jebal Al-Akhdar region in eastern Libya, Al-Hassi enjoys the support of a broad range of social components in Cyrenaica, which has worked to strengthen his appeal among other political stakeholders. However, it appears that his close association with Islamist hardliners and especially those connected with what was known during the revolution as the Libyan Combat Group, who now have extensive influence in the GNC, has hampered his prospects of obtaining a broad enough consensus to be named prime minister. It appears, therefore, that Al-Thani may be required to remain premier, especially given that political factions are even less likely to reach an agreement over a possible successor to Zeidan in view of their general unwillingness to offer any concessions in order to resolve the crisis plaguing the country from when the GNC extended its term which, according to the Constitutional Declaration of August 2011, ended 7 February. With respect to that Constitutional Declaration, the GNC introduced an amendment to it and to the law governing the elections of the Constituent Assembly, which is charged with drafting the Libya's new constitution. The purpose of the amendment is to encourage the Libyan Amazigh and Tebou minorities to participate in the Constituent Assembly with respect to which by-elections will be held shortly to fill the seats allocated to these minorities. This will enable their elected members to participate in the activities of the committee that is scheduled to begin work in May. Meanwhile, the Supreme National Electoral Commission has announced that it is prepared for the forthcoming polls to elect an Assembly of Deputies, which is to be the new legislative body that, once elected, will assume the functions and duties of the GNC. The assembly was proposed by the so-called February Committee that the GNC created in order to devise an alternative to the controversial roadmap that had provided for the extension of the GNC's term until the new constitution is drafted, and that had been rejected by the Libyan public.
