Faced with mounting military pressure around Tripoli, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh is still trying to unravel a coalition of supporters of his designated successor, Fathi Bashagha.
Dbeibeh appointed Farhat Ben Gdara as head of the National Oil Corporation back on July 12. The latter was a close advisor to Marshal Khalifa Haftar, a pillar of the “Eastern Alliance”. Dbeibeh has now pledged to offer several key ministerial positions to the Haftar family in exchange for remaining at the top of the executive branch.
According to the sources, a new round of top-secret negotiations has begun in Dubai, plans a deal between July 20 and 23 to make Haftar’s camp appoints finance minister, planning minister, defence minister and possibly Foreign affairs, but especially the two offices of the Deputy Prime
Ministers representing Cyrenaica (East) and Fezzan (South). These two regions are controlled by Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA). This will be a greater command of power than what Haftar has previously acquired internally within Bachagha’s government, which he still officially supports…
The talks were held under the auspices of UAE intelligence services, which has been trying in vain for months to move forward with the Dbeibeh-Haftar deal.
Haftar is represented by his son and adviser, Saddam Haftar, who, according to some sources, acted on his own initiative. He is flanked by Dubai-based Libyan Ahmed Al-Ahibi, sometimes referred to as “the financier of Haftar’s son”. Al-Ashibi was a central figure in the economic and monetary system of eastern Libya, exerting indirect but significant influence on several commercial banks in Cyrenaica.
His presence at the negotiating table, as well as the focus on the treasury and planning sectors, can be explained by the urgent financial needs of the LNA, which must find a way to repay the billions of dinars it has borrowed.
Banks in the eastern part of the country also paid the bills of Wagner, a Russian paramilitary group that has supported the LNA since 2019.
For the moment, the negotiations have not led to a concrete agreement, and the ‘eastern camp’ has made their presence felt to Dbeibeh, and reminded him of their capacity to cause trouble in the heart of the Libyan capital. On 22 July, while the talks were ongoing, the Tripolitan militias Rada and Nawasi, who are open about their pro-Bachagha leanings, launched an offensive against the force led by Ayoub Abu Ras, allied to Dbeibeh, storming its headquarters in the Zawiyat Al Dahmani district, in the middle of Tripoli. This heavy gunfire, the most serious for several months, is said to have killed at least 16 people and wounded around fifty, undermining Dbeibeh’s promise to maintain peace in the city. Several militias loyal to the outgoing Prime Minister, for whom any alliance with Haftar is a red line, are also likely to resume their autonomy if the agreement is implemented.
