Dbeibah: Libya Under Threat of Division, Facing Great Danger

Head of Libya’s GNU Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah in Tripoli, Libya on November 21, 2021. (AFP/Getty Images)
Head of Libya’s GNU Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah in Tripoli, Libya on November 21, 2021. (AFP/Getty Images)
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Dbeibah: Libya Under Threat of Division, Facing Great Danger

Head of Libya’s GNU Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah in Tripoli, Libya on November 21, 2021. (AFP/Getty Images)
Head of Libya’s GNU Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah in Tripoli, Libya on November 21, 2021. (AFP/Getty Images)

Head of Libya’s Government of National Unity Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah warned that the country is facing the threat of division and coming up against a “great danger.”

During the opening of a mosque in al-Asbiah city on Friday, he said: “Some parties want to divide the country for the sake of a few crumbs, funds and fortunes.”

“We declare that the country will remain one and united even if it means dying for it,” he added.

Addressing Libya’s enemies, whom he didn’t identify, he stated: “They want to take us back, but I say to them that we will never return to the dark days when we used to fight each other.”

“Those who let us live in darkness in the past ten years want to continue to do so,” he remarked.

Turning to the economy, Dbeibah said the situation was “good” and that Libya was producing a surplus of oil.

Furthermore, he held the central bank responsible for the liquidity crisis, calling on it to “radically” change its policies at banks, which are in turn exploiting the situation in the country.

Dbeibah said he has no authority over them.



Blinken Says Syria's HTS Should Learn from Taliban Isolation

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers a statement to the press after the meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern city of Aqaba on December 14, 2024. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers a statement to the press after the meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern city of Aqaba on December 14, 2024. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
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Blinken Says Syria's HTS Should Learn from Taliban Isolation

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers a statement to the press after the meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern city of Aqaba on December 14, 2024. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers a statement to the press after the meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern city of Aqaba on December 14, 2024. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Wednesday on Syria's triumphant HTS opposition group to follow through on promises of inclusion, saying it can learn a lesson from the isolation of Afghanistan's Taliban.
The movement supported by Türkiye has promised to protect minorities since its lightning offensive toppled strongman Bashar al-Assad this month following years of stalemate, AFP reported.
"The Taliban projected a more moderate face, or at least tried to, in taking over Afghanistan, and then its true colors came out. The result is it remains terribly isolated around the world," Blinken said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
After some initial overtures to the West, the Taliban reimposed strict restrictions including barring women and girls from secondary school and university.
"So if you're the emerging group in Syria," Blinken said, "if you don't want that isolation, then there's certain things that you have to do in moving the country forward."
Blinken called for a "non-sectarian" Syrian government that protects minorities and addresses security concerns, including keeping the fight against the ISIS group and removing lingering chemical weapons stockpiles.
Blinken said that HTS can also learn lessons from Assad on the need to reach a political settlement with other groups.
"Assad's utter refusal to engage in any kind of political process is one of the things that sealed his downfall," Blinken said.