Libya Preparing to Restart Oil Output as Central Bank Crisis Eases

A view of the Central Bank of Libya in Tripoli, Libya, August 26, 2024. (Reuters)
A view of the Central Bank of Libya in Tripoli, Libya, August 26, 2024. (Reuters)
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Libya Preparing to Restart Oil Output as Central Bank Crisis Eases

A view of the Central Bank of Libya in Tripoli, Libya, August 26, 2024. (Reuters)
A view of the Central Bank of Libya in Tripoli, Libya, August 26, 2024. (Reuters)

Libya was preparing to restart oil production that has been shut since late of August after an agreement on a new head of the central bank was reached, two oilfield engineers told Reuters on Tuesday.

"We are now waiting for orders from the Corporation (the state oil firm) to resume production at its normal levels after a month-long stoppage," said an engineer from the Jalu 59 oilfield.

An engineer from the El-Feel oilfield said they took advantage of the almost one-month closure to carry out maintenance.

National production and export operations were stopped in August when the parallel government in eastern Libya declared the closure of oil facilities in a protest of the ousting of veteran Central Bank of Libya (CBL) governor Sadiq Kabir by the Presidential Council in Tripoli.

A new CBL governor, Naji Mohamed Issa Belgasem, and his deputy, Mari Muftah Rahil Barrasi were approved on Monday by the two legislative bodies; the east-based House of Representatives in Benghazi and High State Council in Tripoli.

Belgasem and Barrasi took an oath before parliament on Tuesday during a televised session.

Libya's National Oil Corporation said on Aug. 28 that oil production had dropped by more than half of typical levels. It has not made public any new production figures since then.

Libya's oil output has been disrupted repeatedly in the chaotic decade since the country divided in 2014 between two administrations in its east and west following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Moammar al-Gaddafi in 2011.



Lebanon’s Jumblatt Visits Syria, Hoping for a Post-Assad Reset in Troubled Relations

Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
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Lebanon’s Jumblatt Visits Syria, Hoping for a Post-Assad Reset in Troubled Relations

Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)

Former head of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), Druze leader Walid Jumblatt held talks on Sunday with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose group led the overthrow of Syria's President Bashar Assad, with both expressing hope for a new era in relations between their countries.

Jumblatt was a longtime critic of Syria's involvement in Lebanon and blamed Assad's father, former President Hafez Assad, for the assassination of his own father decades ago. He is the most prominent Lebanese politician to visit Syria since the Assad family's 54-year rule came to an end.

“We salute the Syrian people for their great victories and we salute you for your battle that you waged to get rid of oppression and tyranny that lasted over 50 years,” said Jumblatt.

He expressed hope that Lebanese-Syrian relations “will return to normal.”

Jumblatt's father, Kamal, was killed in 1977 in an ambush near a Syrian roadblock during Syria's military intervention in Lebanon's civil war. The younger Jumblatt was a critic of the Assads, though he briefly allied with them at one point to gain influence in Lebanon's ever-shifting political alignments.

“Syria was a source of concern and disturbance, and its interference in Lebanese affairs was negative,” al-Sharaa said, referring to the Assad government. “Syria will no longer be a case of negative interference in Lebanon," he said, pledging that it would respect Lebanese sovereignty.

Al-Sharaa also repeated longstanding allegations that Assad's government was behind the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which was followed by other killings of prominent Lebanese critics of Assad.

Last year, the United Nations closed an international tribunal investigating the assassination after it convicted three members of Lebanon's Hezbollah — an ally of Assad — in absentia. Hezbollah denied involvement in the massive Feb. 14, 2005 bombing, which killed Hariri and 21 others.

“We hope that all those who committed crimes against the Lebanese will be held accountable, and that fair trials will be held for those who committed crimes against the Syrian people,” Jumblatt said.