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Dbeibah Kicks off Visit to Tunisia amid Dispute over His Govt's Legitimacy

Head of Libya’s Government of National Unity (GNU) Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah attends the graduation ceremony of a batch of Libyan army cadets, in Tripoli, Libya, Feb. 8, 2022. (AP)
Head of Libya’s Government of National Unity (GNU) Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah attends the graduation ceremony of a batch of Libyan army cadets, in Tripoli, Libya, Feb. 8, 2022. (AP)
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Dbeibah Kicks off Visit to Tunisia amid Dispute over His Govt's Legitimacy

Head of Libya’s Government of National Unity (GNU) Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah attends the graduation ceremony of a batch of Libyan army cadets, in Tripoli, Libya, Feb. 8, 2022. (AP)
Head of Libya’s Government of National Unity (GNU) Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah attends the graduation ceremony of a batch of Libyan army cadets, in Tripoli, Libya, Feb. 8, 2022. (AP)

Head of Libya’s Government of National Unity (GNU) Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah arrived in Tunisia on Tuesday for a one-week official visit amid a dispute back home over the legitimacy of his government.

Dbeibah is leading a high-level delegation that includes chief of staff of western Libya forces Mohamed Haddad, Interior Minister Khaled Mazen, Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Shoubi, Minister of Marine Resources Adel Sultan, Minister of Economy and Trade Ali Al-Abed, deputy head of the Internal Security Agency Lotfi al-Harari and the Counter-Terrorism Force Commander Major General Muhammad Al-Zein.

This is Dbeibah’s second visit to Tunisia. He had visited the North African nation on September 9, accompanied by the Ministers of Health and Interior and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs.

"The Libyan delegation will meet with Tunisian President Kais Saied and Prime Minister Najla Bouden," Libyan sources close to Dbeibah said.

Bilateral meetings will be held between several Libyan ministers and their Tunisian counterparts.

The delegation will discuss several files, including the political situation in Libya.

In February, Libya's east-based House of Representatives named a new prime minister, former interior minister Fathi Bashagha, to lead a new interim government. The lawmakers claimed the mandate of Dbeibah, who is based in the capital, Tripoli, expired when the election failed to take place.

But Dbeibah insists he will remain prime minister until elections are held, and the High State Council, which advises the interim government, criticized the parliament’s decision to name a new prime minister before holding elections.

Talks in Tunisia will also discuss the joint border crossings, in addition to strengthening economic relations, commercial exchanges and opening Libyan markets to Tunisian labor.

Observers believe the elections file will dominate the Libyan delegation’s visit to Tunisia, which comes few days after Dbeibah visited Algeria.

In Algiers, he met with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who expressed his support for holding the elections.

Tunisia has in recent years sought a neutral stance and avoided taking sides in the Libyan conflict.

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Arab World

Israeli Minister Calls for West Bank War, Annexation of Lebanon, Gaza Areas

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reviews the 'E1' settlement map in the West Bank (Archival - AFP)
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reviews the 'E1' settlement map in the West Bank (Archival - AFP)
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Israeli Minister Calls for West Bank War, Annexation of Lebanon, Gaza Areas

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reviews the 'E1' settlement map in the West Bank (Archival - AFP)
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reviews the 'E1' settlement map in the West Bank (Archival - AFP)

Israel's far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Sunday for the annexation of areas of south Lebanon and the Gaza Strip currently under Israeli military control and for Israeli forces to "go to war" against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, reported AFP.

"I would like us to annex at least as far as the Yellow Line in Gaza (which demarcates the areas under Hamas and Israeli control) and as far as the Litani River in Lebanon... because if a war ends along the same lines where it began, what will deter the enemy from going to war again," Smotrich said in a podcast for Israeli news site Ynet.

"I think we need to go to war in Judea and Samaria, to dismantle the Palestinian Authority that supports terror," he added, using the biblical term for the West Bank.

Smotrich is the leader of a far-right party that advocates the annexation of the entire West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.

The West Bank has seen a surge in violence since the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip following Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

More than 500,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, which are illegal under international law, in the Palestinian territory among some three million Palestinians.

Arab World

Libya Oil Pipeline Reopens after Being Blocked by Armed Group

Sharara oil field (Libyan News Agency)
Sharara oil field (Libyan News Agency)
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Libya Oil Pipeline Reopens after Being Blocked by Armed Group

Sharara oil field (Libyan News Agency)
Sharara oil field (Libyan News Agency)

Libya's national oil firm announced Saturday that an oil pipeline blocked for several days by an armed group had reopened, ending a disruption it said had cost $95 million.

The pipeline links the Al-Sharara oilfield in southwest Libya to the Zawiya export terminal on the Mediterranean coast, said AFP.

The National Oil Corporation (NOC) said in a statement that valve number seven had been reopened, allowing crude pumping through the pipeline to resume.

The pipeline is operated by Akakus, a joint venture between the NOC, Spain's Repsol, France's TotalEnergies, Austria's OMV and Norway's Equinor.

An armed group shut the valve on Monday, causing a sharp drop in production, according to the NOC. It gave no details about those responsible or their demands.

Blockades of oil and gas facilities have been common in Libya in recent years, driven by social grievances, security threats or political disputes.

Arab World

Egyptian Source Denies Cairo Involvement in Ethiopia Unrest

Gunmen in Tigray hand over light weapons to Ethiopian defense forces earlier (Ethiopian News Agency)
Gunmen in Tigray hand over light weapons to Ethiopian defense forces earlier (Ethiopian News Agency)
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Egyptian Source Denies Cairo Involvement in Ethiopia Unrest

Gunmen in Tigray hand over light weapons to Ethiopian defense forces earlier (Ethiopian News Agency)
Gunmen in Tigray hand over light weapons to Ethiopian defense forces earlier (Ethiopian News Agency)

An informed Egyptian source on Saturday rejected allegations linking Cairo to renewed unrest in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region where fighting resumed between Tigrayan forces and the federal government, nearly four years after a peace deal ended a two-year war.

Field Marshal Birhanu Jula, chief of general staff of the Ethiopian National Defense Force, accused foreign powers of supporting a newly formed armed alliance seeking to destabilize Ethiopia.

“The Tigray front and the alliance cannot achieve anything on their own unless they are pushed, supported and supplied by Sudan, Egypt and other forces,” Jula said in remarks carried by Ethiopian media Friday.

He also accused Eritrea of acting as an intermediary between foreign powers and armed groups inside Ethiopia.

Tigrayan forces seized three airports in the region and launched attacks in neighboring Afar and Amhara in recent days, marking the most serious escalation since the devastating 2020-2022 war.

The Egyptian source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Ethiopia’s insinuations were “allegations that do not merit a response,” adding that Cairo “has nothing to do with such polemics.”

The source urged Ethiopian authorities to “address their own internal crises and problems instead of trying to blame their domestic failures on external parties.”

The Tigray crisis was a longstanding internal issue, the source added, stressing that Egypt maintains “a consistent and strict policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.”

Egyptian strategic and military expert Samir Ragheb similarly told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Ethiopian military chief’s remarks amounted to assumptions intended to shift responsibility for Addis Ababa’s internal problems onto outside actors.

Ragheb argued that Ethiopia’s reference to outside support was based largely on geography, given Tigray’s northern borders with Sudan and Eritrea.

“If Egypt had sought to intervene in Ethiopia to exert pressure over other issues, it would have done so during the 2020 fighting, when the conflict was at its height and before construction phases of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam had been completed,” he said.

Ragheb described the fighting as a longstanding domestic struggle over power and resources, stemming from disputes over governance and efforts to weaken Ethiopia’s federal system.

He also urged that the Tigray conflict be kept separate from the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, saying there was no operational or strategic link between fighting in Tigray and the dam.

Ragheb argued that Addis Ababa’s accusations were intended to deflect attention from what he described as failures to fulfill commitments under the 2022 Pretoria peace agreement. He stressed that Cairo does not support armed factions or movements against African states.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front dominated Ethiopia’s ruling coalition from 1991 until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018 and marginalized the group, contributing to tensions that erupted into war in 2020.

The Pretoria agreement ended that conflict in 2022, but tensions and intermittent clashes subsequently returned before escalating sharply this month.