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Libya's Ex-Interior Minister Registers for Presidential Bid

People gather along the beach in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, on October 15, 2021. Abdullah DOMA AFP/File
People gather along the beach in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, on October 15, 2021. Abdullah DOMA AFP/File
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Libya's Ex-Interior Minister Registers for Presidential Bid

People gather along the beach in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, on October 15, 2021. Abdullah DOMA AFP/File
People gather along the beach in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, on October 15, 2021. Abdullah DOMA AFP/File

Libya's former Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha registered as a presidential candidate on Thursday for a planned December election that remains in doubt amid disputes over the rules.

Bashagha was the influential interior minister in the Government of National Accord (GNA) that ruled in western areas and was replaced in March by a new unity government.

He joins a field of prospective candidates that includes late ousted dictator Moammar al-Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Haftar, and the eastern-based parliament speaker Aguila Saleh.

A UN-backed peace process calls for presidential and parliamentary elections on Dec. 24, but there has been no widespread agreement on the legal basis for the vote.

Disputes between rival factions and political entities have focused on questions over who should be allowed to run, the eventual role of the directly elected president and the voting schedule.

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US Drops $10 Million Reward for Syria’s al-Sharaa

US Drops $10 Million Reward for Syria’s al-Sharaa
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US Drops $10 Million Reward for Syria’s al-Sharaa

US Drops $10 Million Reward for Syria’s al-Sharaa

The Biden administration said Friday it has decided not to pursue a $10 million reward it had offered for the capture of Ahmad al-Sharaa, whose group led fighters that ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad earlier this month.

The announcement followed a meeting in Damascus between al-Sharaa and the top US diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, who led the first US diplomatic delegation into Syria since Assad’s ouster.

Al-Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, remains designated a foreign terrorist organization, and Leaf would not say if sanctions stemming from that designation would be eased.

However, she told reporters that Sharaa had committed to renouncing terrorism and as a result the US would no longer offer the reward.
Leaf said the US would make policy decisions based on actions and not words.

"It was a good first meeting. We will judge by the deeds, not just by words," Leaf said in a briefing and added that the US officials reiterated that Syria's new government should be inclusive. It should also ensure that terrorist groups cannot pose a threat, she said.
"Ahmed al-Sharaa committed to this," Leaf said. "So, based on our discussion, I told him we would not be pursuing rewards for justice," she said, referring to a $10 million bounty that US had put on the HTS leader's head.

The US delegation also worked to uncover new information about US journalist Austin Tice, who was taken captive during a reporting trip to Syria in 2012, and other American citizens who went missing under Assad.

US Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, who was part of the delegation, said Washington would work with Syria's interim authorities to find Tice.

Carstens, who has been in the region since Assad's fall, said he has received a lot of information about Tice, but none of it had so far confirmed his fate one way or another.