Libyas

Eastern-based parliament votes to replace longtime speaker with Al-Salhin Abdelnabi al-Obeidi.

Libya’s eastern-based House of Representatives has elected a new speaker, ending Aguila Saleh’s 12-year tenure amid growing discontent among lawmakers over his leadership.

Legislators in the 170-member House voted on Tuesday to replace Saleh with Al-Salhin Abdelnabi al-Obeidi, the parliament’s spokesperson announced on X.

The vote came a day after 98 members of the House approved a new system limiting the speaker and deputy speakers to a single 12-month term.

The change ended an arrangement that had been in place since the chamber’s first leadership was elected in 2014.

“There was significant discontent among MPs with the previous leadership over numerous errors,” lawmaker Jebree Oheida told the Reuters news agency. “We tried to engage with the leadership to address these issues, but to no avail. Among these errors were decisions made without consulting MPs.”

The vote was overseen by Second Deputy Speaker Misbah Douma, according to the Libya Observer.

Saleh has previously rejected the proceedings, saying the initial vote to limit the speaker’s term was “not official and had no legal effect”, according to the outlet.  He had also announced that he had cancelled the session he had called for Tuesday.

The developments come as Libya remains divided politically and militarily between the United Nations-recognised government in Tripoli led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east backed by renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar.

Haftar’s camp relies in particular on the parliament, which sits in the eastern city of Benghazi under their control.

Saleh has long been considered a staunch ally of the Haftar clan, but analysts said he appeared to be weakened as Haftar’s sons, in particular Saddam Haftar, consolidated their positions.

“Agila Saleh appears to be the latest casualty of Saddam Haftar’s drive to centralise decision-making in eastern Libya and bulldoze his way into a political role,” said Emadeddin Badi, an analyst at the London-based Chatham House.

Al-Obeidi, who comes from the same tribe as Saleh, represents the eastern city of Tobruk and has chaired parliament’s Libyan-Turkish friendship committee.

The House on Tuesday also elected Tarek al-Ashtar and Mesbah Douma as first and second deputy speakers, respectively.

Their election follows the signing of a landmark agreement by representatives of Libya’s rival political camps in Tripoli in August that could see presidential and legislative elections held within two years.

Mediated by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), the “4+4 committee” agreement attempts to resolve recurring legal and institutional disputes that have crippled the nation since the overthrow of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The United States is pursuing a separate reunification plan for the oil and gas-rich North African country, led by Massad Boulos, President Donald Trump’s senior adviser for Arab and African affairs.

TRIPOLI: Operations were suspended at two oilfields and a pumping station after members of the security force charged with protecting Libya’s oil sector closed a valve on the main Hamada-Zawiya crude-loading pipeline, the National Oil Corporation said on Tuesday.

The NOC said it may declare force majeure if the valve remains closed or if other fields ‌are subjected ‌to similar forced shutdowns.

The company said ‌production had completely halted at the Hamada and Tahara fields and at a pumping station. Libyan oil output has been subject to repeated closures for political and technical reasons since the 2011 uprising against Muammar Qaddafi.

In a statement obtained by Reuters, the Petroleum Facilities Guard, which provides security for Libya’s oil fields, pipelines and terminals, demanded that ‌their agency be transferred “financially ‌and administratively under the National Oil Corporation”.

They called on the ‌prime ministry and the NOC to take urgent measures ‌to complete the administrative and financial arrangements for this, and set a clear implementation timeline.

The agency currently operates under the defense ministry. The Guard said it would implement a ‌partial production cut for one week as of Tuesday at several fields including Wafa, Al-Khamsa and El Feel, adding that a complete shutdown would follow if their demands were not met.

Oil production is Libya’s main economic source, representing approximately 90 percent of the economy of the entire country. “Shutting down oil fields and halting production operations at this critical juncture — as the world witnesses a rise in crude oil prices — constitutes a devastating blow to the national economy,” the NOC said in a statement.