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Merkel, Erdogan and Putin discuss diplomatic solution for Libya

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed efforts to reach a diplomatic solution for the Libyan conflict in separate phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, whose government intends to send troops to Libya, a government spokesman said on Monday.

A German foreign ministry spokesman in Berlin said Germany was following the reports about Turkey’s military plans in Libya with “great concern”. He urged all involved parties to exercise maximum restraint, respect an international embargo for arms exports to Libya and step up efforts for a diplomatic solution.

“A further exchange was agreed to strengthen diplomatic efforts,” the government spokesman said, adding that Merkel also discussed the developments in Syria with Erdogan and Putin during the phone calls, which took place on Sunday.

Germany has offered to host an international peace conference on Libya that the United Nations is planning. The conference could take place in Berlin after a planned meeting between Erdogan and Putin in January.

While state jobs dry up: young Libyans train to become chefs.

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After several attempts at landing a job in Libya’s state oil industry, 22-year-old engineering graduate Belghasem Abdulsalam decided to make a living baking cakes.

Most Libyans work in the public sector but the state has been hiring less as the country engulfed in conflict in the years since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Jobs in the private sector have also become scarce, as foreign companies left due to the deteriorating security situation.

Forced to give up his dream of working in the oil industry, Abdulsalam took the “Benghazino chef course” at a private training centre in Benghazi to learn the confectionery trade.

He now works full time in a busy Cafe in Benghazi and he gets paid every month, unlike many who work for the cash-strapped public sector.

“The income is much better than from the government because you have your salary in your hands,” Abdulsalam said.

The training centre’s owner, accountancy graduate Sara Bashir al-Zawy, 35, said young people needed to take care of themselves.

“If I had been waiting for the country to provide me with a job, I would have been unemployed at home for eight years now,” she said.

Another alumnus of the confectionery course, 30-year-old Nabil Mohamed al-Mabrouk, started his own cake business to cater to cafes and supplement his father’s state pension of 450 Libyan dinars ($321) in order to feed a family of nine.

“My hands make money,” said Mabrouk, who has a certificate of business administration and bank financing. “Making three to four cakes can gain me half of a state salary.”

Turkey fast-tracks bill to deploy troops to Libya

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The Turkish government is sending to parliament on Monday a bill mandating the deployment of troops to Libya, said Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, accelerating a high-stakes plan that Ankara outlined last week.

Last week, President Tayyip Erdogan said his government would seek parliamentary consent to deploy troops to Libya after Fayez al-Serraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA) requested support. The GNA is fending off an offensive by Khalifa Haftar’s forces in the east of the North African country.

Erdogan had said on Thursday the bill would pass around Jan. 8-9.

But Cavusoglu, after meeting with Turkish opposition leaders to seek support for the legislation, told reporters the bill would be submitted to parliament later on Monday.

“As the Foreign Ministry, we presented the mandate to the Presidency for it to be sent to the parliament. And as of today, we have learned from the President’s office that the mandate will be sent to parliament with the signature of the Honourable President within the day,” Cavusoglu said.

Earlier on Monday, Turkey’s main opposition party said after talks with Cavusoglu that it opposes the bill, arguing that such a move would exacerbate the country’s conflict and cause it to spread across the region.

Cavusoglu later met with the opposition Iyi Party, which he said would evaluate the bill.

Ankara has already sent military supplies to the GNA despite a United Nations embargo, according to a U.N. report seen by Reuters last month, and has said it will continue to support the GNA. Haftar’s forces have received support from Russia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

Tajura: New medical instruments for The National Heart Center

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The National Heart Center in Tajura received medical instruments and equipment in the framework of hospitals’ maintenance, and in implementation of the ministry’s plan to support the public health sector in Libya.

According to a statement issued on Monday, by the Ministry of Health, on its official Facebook page, the equipment consisted of a catheterization device, a CT scan machine, an ultrasound, an electrocardiography, as well as ventilators, electro-shock devices and vitals monitors.



German ship Alan Kurdi rescues 32 migrants from Mediterranean

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Restating Reuters, the crew of NGO Sea-Eye’s ship Alan Kurdi rescued 32 migrants from an overcrowded rubber dinghy off the coast of Libya on Friday morning (December 27) after it received an emergency call late on Thursday (December 26), the organisation said.

In a statement, the Regensburg-based organisation Sea-Eye said among those rescued were 10 children including a three-month-old baby and five women, one of them pregnant. All of the rescued said they came from Libya.

According to Sea-Eye, the emergency call went out at 22.31 local time and was also forwarded to the Libyan rescue coordination centre, which didn’t react to the call even though the boat was still close to the Libyan coast.

The missile strike leads to the disruption of loadings at western Libya oil port

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Loadings at Libya’s western Zawiya oil port, home also to a refinery, are continuing normally despite a missile landing nearby, state energy firm NOC said on Friday.

According to NOC’s statement, the missile strike, which happened on Thursday, caused no casualties or damage.

Zawiya refinery is Libya’s biggest functioning refinery supplying western and southern Libya with fuel products. Oil is also exported and imported via the port.

Forces allied to Libya’s internationally recognized government earlier accused eastern forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar of having hit the oil port complex.

Haftar’s forces have been trying to take the capital Tripoli, 40 kms east of Zawiya, in a campaign since April.

On Thursday, an air strike blamed by local officials on Haftar’s forces hit a pharmacy in Zawiya town, killing two people.

(Reuters)

Tripoli Audit Bureau suspends Libya’s Local Investment Fund Manager

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The head of the Libyan Audit Bureau, Khaled Shakshak, suspended the CEO of the Libyan Local Fund for Investment Bader Ben-Othman as a result of conflicts of interests and independence in the tasks he occupies.

Decision No. 661 of 15 December 2019, adopted by the Head of the Libyan Audit Bureau, clarified that Othman occupies the post of a Member of the Board of the Libyan Local Fund Investment and a member of the Board of Sea Tower.

For the first time in 3 months: Unprecedented rise in Oil barrel’s price

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Oil prices rebounded sharply in global markets today Friday, to reach their highest levels, exceeding 68 dollars per barrel for the first time since last September.

Quoting Reuters, Brent crude futures rose 6 cents, which is 0.1 percent, reaching 68.10 dollars per barrel. Meanwhile, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 11 cents, which is about 0.2% to reach 61.80 dollars a barrel.

The agency attributed the reasons for the rise of oil prices to the end of U.S.-China commercial charges war, in addition to OPEC’s agreement with Russia on extending the reduction of production.

The release of Ridha Fheel Al-Boom

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The Public Prosecution released the Libyan journalist Ridha Faheel Al-Boom on Wednesday 12 days after his arrest amidst local and international appeals for his release.

The President of the National Organization for Independent Media was arrested when he was in Mitiga Airport coming from Tunisia after his participation in an event by civil society organizations on the occasion of the International Day of Human Rights.

The detention of Fheel elicited local and international reaction, considering that the detention demonstrates violation of human rights and freedom of expression in Libya.