Libya’s Parliament Approves Appointment of Belqasem as New Central Bank Governor

Libyan Ministry of Interior personnel stand guard in front of the Central Bank of Libya in Tripoli, Libya, August 27, 2024. (Reuters)
Libyan Ministry of Interior personnel stand guard in front of the Central Bank of Libya in Tripoli, Libya, August 27, 2024. (Reuters)
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Libya’s Parliament Approves Appointment of Belqasem as New Central Bank Governor

Libyan Ministry of Interior personnel stand guard in front of the Central Bank of Libya in Tripoli, Libya, August 27, 2024. (Reuters)
Libyan Ministry of Interior personnel stand guard in front of the Central Bank of Libya in Tripoli, Libya, August 27, 2024. (Reuters)

Libya’s eastern parliament on Monday agreed to appoint Naji Mohamed Issa Belqasem as the new central bank governor after the former governor, Sadiq al-Kabir, was fired last month by the presidential council in the capital, Tripoli.

Parliament spokesperson Abdullah Bliheg said Monday that all 108 lawmakers voted in favor of appointing Belqasem, who previously was the central bank’s director of banking and monetary control.

The parliament also appointed Mari Muftah Rahil Barrasi as his deputy. Belqasem and Barrasi are expected to form a new board of directors for the central bank within 10 days.

The decision came as part of a UN-facilitated agreement between the parliament and the High Council of State to appoint new leadership for the country’s central bank.

Last month, the presidential council issued a decree to appoint Mohamed Abdul Salam al-Shukri, the former deputy governor, as a replacement for al-Kabir. The presidential council in Tripoli is allied with Abdul Hamid Dbeibah’s Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU).

However, the country’s eastern parliament and the Supreme Council of State, an advisory body based in the capital, said removing al-Kabir was was an illegitimate move and that such a decision should have been made in coordination with both bodies. That is according to interim regulations agreed upon during UN-backed talks that help oversee the unity of the country’s institutions.

Al-Kabir served as the central bank’s governor since October 2011, the year when Libya plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising overthrew the country’s longtime leader, Moammar al-Gadhafi.

During the months that led up to his removal, al-Kabir was criticized by officials from both sides of the North African nation’s political divide over the allocation of Libya’s oil money.



Drone Strike in Israel Wounds Almost 40 as Hezbollah Is Blamed

The Israeli Iron Dome air defense system intercepts a missile fired from south Lebanon over the western Galilee, northern Israel, 13 October 2024. (EPA)
The Israeli Iron Dome air defense system intercepts a missile fired from south Lebanon over the western Galilee, northern Israel, 13 October 2024. (EPA)
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Drone Strike in Israel Wounds Almost 40 as Hezbollah Is Blamed

The Israeli Iron Dome air defense system intercepts a missile fired from south Lebanon over the western Galilee, northern Israel, 13 October 2024. (EPA)
The Israeli Iron Dome air defense system intercepts a missile fired from south Lebanon over the western Galilee, northern Israel, 13 October 2024. (EPA)

Israeli rescue services said almost 40 people were wounded in a drone strike in the central city of Binyamina on Sunday, three of them critically. The Hezbollah armed group was blamed for one of the most serious strikes to land in Israel in a year of war.

Israel’s advanced air-defense systems mean that it's rare for so many people to be hurt by drones or missiles. Israeli media reported that two drones were launched from Lebanon, and Israel's military said one was intercepted.

It was not immediately clear who was hurt, military or civilians, or what was hit.

It was the second time in two days that a drone has struck in Israel. On Saturday, during the Israeli holiday of Yom Kippur, a drone struck in a suburb of Tel Aviv, causing damage but no injuries.

The strike came on the same day that the United States announced it would send a new air-defense system to Israel to help bolster its protection against missiles.

Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon — both Iran-backed armed groups — and is expected to strike Iran in retaliation for a missile attack earlier this month, though it has not said how or when. Iran has said it will respond to any Israeli attack.

A year into the war with Hamas, Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets in Gaza nearly every day. One strike late Saturday hit a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing the parents and their six children, ages 8 to 23, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah. An Associated Press reporter counted the bodies there.

“They were safe, while he was sleeping, and he and all his children died,” said the man's brother, Mohammad Abu Ghali. Women stroked the body bags, in tears.

Israel's military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas and other armed groups because they operate in densely populated areas.