Libya’s resumption of oil exports confusing GNA

Fatma Abdelghani

The members of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) are locking horns after Commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, announced the resumption of oil exports.

The resumption of the exports is apparently making some of the members of the GNA angry, especially in the light of the fact that it came in agreement with Deputy Head of the Presidential Council of the GNA Ahmed Metig.

This is causing some of the associates of GNA Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj to declare their opposition to the move.

GNA Minister of Defense Salah Eddin al-Namroush rejected the resumption of oil exports.

He said the crimes committed in Libya would not be forgotten.

Namroush vowed in a statement published on the site of the GNA Ministry of Defense to lodge a complaint at the United Nations against the perpetrators of those crimes.

Head of the Justice and Construction Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya, Mohamed Sawan, said the agreements that had been struck in the past few days overlooked what he described as “legitimacy”.

“They are tantamount to uncalculated risks that are made to fail,” Sawan said.

He noted that those agreements would complicate the Libyan crisis even more.

Sawan called for paying attention to what he described as Turkey’s rights in Libya.

He said his party works to make arrangements that put the geostrategic interests of Libya’s partners into account.

Head of what is known as the Supreme State Council, Khalid al-Meshri, rejected the resumption of oil exports.

He said the agreement between Metig and Haftar did away with the 2015 Skhirat Agreement.

The agreement is also a violation of the mandate of legitimate authorities in Libya, Meshri said.

He called for opening an inquiry into the agreement.