Our website use cookies to improve and personalize your experience and to display advertisements (if any). Our website may also include cookies from third parties like Google Adsense, Google Analytics, and Youtube. By using the website, you consent to the use of cookies.

Eastern Libya forces say they have found missing uranium

Eastern Libya forces say they have found missing uranium

EASTERN Libyan forces said that 10 drums of uranium declared missing by the U.N. nuclear watchdog had been found near the warehouse they were taken from in southern Libya. Khaled Mahjoub, head of a media unit for the Libyan National Army, the main eastern military force, said in a statement that the 10 missing barrels had been recovered, though a separate video he sent showed workers counting 18. The IAEA said in a confidential statement to member states seen by Reuters that it detected the missing uranium during a check at an unnamed site in Libya on Tuesday which it had postponed…
Read More
Libya’s key coast road open

Libya’s key coast road open

LIBYA'S warring sides reopened the main coast road across the frontline, a key element of a ceasefire they agreed last year that has involved months of negotiations. The U.N.-backed 5+5 committee drawn from commander Khalifa Haftar's eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) and western-based forces that have supported Tripoli-based governments said in a statement the road was open from 0900 GMT. The road, which stretches along the length of Libya's coastline, the most populated part of the country, was cut between the cities of Misrata and Sirte, where the frontline stabilised last summer. It was not open to military traffic, the…
Read More
Libya’s Haftar closes border with Algeria

Libya’s Haftar closes border with Algeria

FORCES loyal to Libya's eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar have closed the border with Algeria, they said on Sunday, after major deployments of his forces to the south underscored his continued role despite efforts to unify the country. Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) last week sent troops into the southern city of Sebha, which was already allied to eastern forces, and then on Saturday to a southern border crossing with Algeria. "The armed forces has closed the Libyan-Algerian border and declared it a military zone in which movement is prohibited", said the Moral Guidance Department, an LNA media unit. The nearly…
Read More
Libyan interim PM delays trip to east

Libyan interim PM delays trip to east

LIBYA's new interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh postponed a visit to the country's east to demonstrate his unity government's progress in ending years of division between warring factions. His spokesman Mohamed Hamouda said in a social media post that the visit had been postponed without giving details. The delay underscores the continued friction between rival camps in the capital Tripoli, in the west, and Benghazi, in the east, the stronghold of commander Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA). East and west sides formed rival administrations in 2014, further dividing a country already beset by the chaos and violence that followed…
Read More
Libya’s unity government sworn in

Libya’s unity government sworn in

AYMAN AL-WARFALI LIBYA’S first unity government in years was sworn in yesterday in the eastern city of Tobruk, charged with unifying the country after years of violence and division and overseeing the run-up to national elections. The government, which emerged through a United Nations dialogue process and was ratified last week in a frontline city, is seen as providing Libya's best hope in years for an end to a decade of chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi. "I swear by God almighty to perform my duties with honesty and sincerity," said Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, taking the oath…
Read More
Libyan parliament reunites

Libyan parliament reunites

AYMAN AL-WARFALI THE opposing factions of Libya's divided parliament met in a frontline city on Monday for the first time after years of war and chaos, to debate a proposed unity government to oversee national elections this year under an international peace plan. More than 130 parliament members have travelled for the session to Sirte, a city battered by repeated battles since the 2011 NATO-backed rising against Muammar Gaddafi that left Libya with no strong central government for a decade. The city is now held by Khalifa Haftar's eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA), which retreated there last year after failing…
Read More
Factional risks hover as Libya’s U.N. peace process advances

Factional risks hover as Libya’s U.N. peace process advances

LIBYANS working under a U.N. peace process on Tuesday agreed a mechanism to choose a new temporary government to oversee the run-up to elections late this year, in the hope that it can avoid being scuppered by factional rivalries. It follows weeks of negotiation after a political dialogue in Tunis in November among 75 Libyans, selected by the U.N. Libya mission, charted a roadmap towards elections but failed to agree on how to form an interim government. Libya has known little peace since Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011, in an uprising backed by NATO, and has been split since…
Read More
Libya releases bodies found in mass graves for burial

Libya releases bodies found in mass graves for burial

LIBYAN authorities have released two bodies found in mass graves in the city of Tarhouna after the Tripoli government retook it in June from Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA). They are among the first to be identified since the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) began exhuming scores of bodies from numerous sites in and around Tarhouna. Last week Human Rights Watch said hundreds of Tarhouna residents were abducted or reported missing after the local Kaniyat militia took control there in 2015. The Kaniyat, headed by members of the al-Kani family, was allied to the LNA and helped…
Read More
Turkey warns Libya’s Haftar and supporters against attacking its forces

Turkey warns Libya’s Haftar and supporters against attacking its forces

TURKISH Defence Minister Hulusi Akar has warned that the forces of Khalifa Haftar and their supporters based in eastern Libya would be viewed as "legitimate targets" if they attempted to attack Turkish forces in the region. Turkey is the main foreign backer of Libya's internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) based in Tripoli, which for years has been fighting Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA). The LNA is backed by Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. In October, the GNA and LNA signed a ceasefire agreement and the United Nations has been pushing a political dialogue aimed at elections…
Read More
Top Egypt officials visit Libya capital for first time in years

Top Egypt officials visit Libya capital for first time in years

SENIOR Egyptian security officials have visited the Libyan capital Tripoli for the first time in years and held talks with officials from the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), the Libyan interior ministry said. The visit was the first for senior Egyptian officials to Tripoli since 2014 when the country entered a civil war between the GNA, based in the capital, and the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Khalifa Haftar. Tripoli's government is backed by Turkey while LNA is backed by Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. Libya descended into chaos after the NATO-backed overthrow of…
Read More