Libyan Parliament Approves New Unified Government

Abdelhamid Dbeibah pictured in 2017 (Wikimedia)

Libya’s United Nations-backed government approved the cabinet of newly appointed Libyan Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah on March 3, marking a great step towards national unity. This temporary government will lead the country through its December 24 elections and will also replace current parallel governments. This will hopefully bring stability to the country that continues to experience a brutal civil war provoked by the vacuum formed after the death of longtime strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

The UN-sponsored inter-Libyan dialogue selected Dbeibah, known for his billions as well as his ties to Gaddafi, in early February to help unite the fractured country. Despite facing accusations of vote-purchasing, he nevertheless leads the executive branch of the presidential council, where he works with influential members from both the east and west of the country. Between the Government of National Accord (backed by the UN and Turkey and based in Tripoli) and the House of Representatives (the Russian and Emirati supported government based in Tobruk), Libya had not had a unified government since the end of Gadaffi’s regime in 2011. The cabinet nominations passed in a landslide 121-132 victory, over to whom both governments have agreed to hand power.

Because Libya possesses the continent’s largest proven oil reserves, a return to stability has large implications for the global oil market. Since September 2020, oil production has increased almost 19-fold to 1.3 million barrels per day. The country aims to increase this to 1.45 million barrels per day by the end of the year. 

However, not all sources have as much optimism as the state-run oil corporation. According to the S&P’s Global Platts Analytics, there will be continued disruptions as “diplomatic processes are unlikely to shift the military balance of power on the ground or prevent Petroleum Facilities Guards from threatening export blockades.” These disruptions will threaten the continued growth of the Libyan oil industry and could become a problem for the new interim administration in their attempts to improve services and unify state institutions. 

Even in light of these bleaker predictions, hope remains for Libya. Tarek Megerisi of the European Council on Foreign Relations claims that even just the unification of “one government and one set of institutions” will put the country into a “far superior place than [it has] been for the last five years.”