The EU ambassador to Libya has called on warring parties to stop clashes and mark Eid al-Fitr, holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, in peace.
Alan Bugeja urged Libyan army and militias of warlord Khalifa Haftar “to respect the spirituality of Eid al-Fitr and allow the holidays to be celebrated in peace and compassion, which is the basis of the religion of Islam.”
“While this year’s Eid al-Fitr is being celebrated, Libyans, besides suffering from the coronavirus pandemic, still continue to be affected by the war that has caused death, destruction and displacement. It is time to hear the ongoing calls to end conflicts and return to dialogue,” Bugeja said in a statement on Saturday.
The Libyan Interior Ministry’s Coronavirus task force has called on Libyans to abide by instructions of the curfew and total lockdown during Eid Al-Fitr days.
The Interior Ministry urged the residents not to go out except for necessities and to abide by cooperation with the relevant authorities to preserve their safety, instructing security apparatuses to fine and take legal procedures against the violators.
Libya will see 24-hour lockdown on the three days of Eid Al-Fitr from Sunday to Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Coronavirus cases have reached 75 in Libya after registering three new ones on Saturday by the National Center for Disease Control, which said it had tested 152 samples, three of which – for Libyans returning from abroad, came positive.
The Ministry of Education has requested pupils in public schools as well as teachers to register in its newly-launched remote learning platform called “To Learn”.
On May 12, the Minister of Education, Mohammed Amari, inaugurated a new platform for remote learning, in coordination with Microsoft and under the supervision of the Information and Documentation Center.
The link to the platform was made available on Thursday on the ministry’s official Facebook page.
According to the ministry, the platform targets students at the primary, preparatory, and secondary levels in all government schools.
The ministry urged all education monitors in Libyan cities to work towards enrolling all teachers and students in their areas in the new platform.
It is noteworthy that the Education Ministry and UNICEF announced a new online platform for distance learning to help children continue their education and maintain their learning skills after education institutions were shut down due to the precautionary measure implemented by the authorities to stem the Coronavirus pandemic.
Tripoli, which receives all of the nation’s oil revenue via the central bank, distributes the money unfairly and to the disadvantage of the historically marginalized east, stated Bloomberg News, an international news agency headquartered in New York.
Sarraj may now be in a position to attempt to restart the western fields of Sharara, Libya’s biggest, and El-Feel. But Haftar’s past actions suggest he won’t end his blockade of oil ports or allow other fields to open unless he gets a deal giving him a greater proportion of Libya’s energy receipts.
“There may be attempts to restart southwestern oil fields but sustained production is something else,” said Bill Farren-Price, a director at Canadian consultancy RS Energy Group. “The bulk of Libya’s oil production is likely to continue to be disrupted until there are signs that the political process is moving again. That will probably require better international engagement, which is absent right now.”
Libya’s exports, now just 90,000 barrels a day, stood at 1.2 million in late 2019. Sharara and El-Feel accounted for roughly 400,000 of those. If they came back onstream, it would offset a fraction of the output cuts by OPEC and its allies that have helped Brent crude prices soar 90% in the past month to around $37 a barrel.
Libya, which has Africa’s largest oil reserves, is exempt from those curbs. The country has been in disarray since a 2011 uprising that led to former leader Muammar Qaddafi’s ouster. Its crude output has never recovered to the level before then of 1.6 million barrels per day.
Turkey has decided to freeze the assets of the Libyan Investment Authority and the Libyan Africa Investment Portfolio in line with a decision by the United Nations Security Council.
The decision on the freezing of the assets of the two legal entities was published in the issue of the Official Gazette on May 20. The decision stated that one of the institutions, Libya Africa Investment Portfolio, was under the control of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his family.
Libya has been in turmoil since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising killed longtime dictator Gaddafi, with rival armed factions still vying for power.
The European Union’s naval mission to enforce an arms embargo on Libya is not fair and serves Libyan National Army’s interests, said Interior Minister of the Government of National Accord (GNA) on Friday.
In his statements to a German newspaper, Fathi Bashagha stressed that Operation Irini is “unbalanced, unfair, and biased.”
Although the operation halts supplying weapons via sea routes, yet it doesn’t monitor the supply operations across the eastern borders or through air routes except by satellites or radars, the Minister noted.
He pointed out that Haftar has not yet been fully defeated in Tripoli, thanks in particular to Russia’s Private Military Company (PMC) Wagner mercenaries.
“They play a decisive role on the fighting fronts and coordinate artillery there,” Bashagha stressed, adding that the military threat has become “much less” than last year.
He also defended the support received by the GNA from Turkey, whose army is also involved in Libya’s battles. “We have become in a situation in which we must defend ourselves and our people. We are an internationally-recognized legitimate government.”
“The GNA agreed on a ceasefire, while Haftar did not respect the international community’s will and has constantly ignored its efforts.”
The EU seeks through this mission to achieve stability in Libya and support the United Nations peace process.
Irini replaced EU’s Operation Sophia, which expired in March and stopped deploying ships a year ago after Italy, facing an anti-immigrant backlash, said it would no longer take migrants rescued at sea.
The US Embassy in Libya reported that they share UNSMIL’s concerns regarding the recent issue of ‘death sentences’ by military courts in Eastern Libya.
“As we have said throughout this conflict, there is absolutely no place for attacks on civilians, looting or acts of retribution. It’s time for all parties in Libya to immediately deescalate and return to UN-led negotiations in the 5+5 format,” stated the US Embassy.
The Mission said in a statement that it is particularly concerned by reports of the speed of the handing down of these sentences and the fact that defendants were not permitted to present any defense to the courts or to examine any alleged evidence of the accusations waged against them.
It noted that these judgments were made in-Camera, without the provision of any written rulings against the accused who were denied any and all legal representation.
Chairman of Presidential Council Fayez Sarraj received Friday a phone call from US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo to discuss the latest developments in Libya.
According to Sarraj’s media office, Pompeo reiterated that there is no military solution to the Libyan crisis and that the political track is the only way out of the crisis.
The US Embassy reported that Pompeo reiterated his country’s opposition to the continued level of weapons and munitions being brought into the country.
For his part, Sarraj said his government had to fight to repel the attackers who displaced and killed hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed the infrastructure.
