Western governments have appealed to forces loyal to a powerful Libyan general to withdraw from oil ports taken from a militia loyal to the UN-backed national unity government at the weekend.
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Ahmed al-Masmari, a spokesman for Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), said LNA fighters seized control of Es Sider, Ras Lanuf and Brega, but still faced resistance at the port of Zueitina and around the nearby town of Ajdabiya.
Numerous ports and fields in eastern Libya are held by the Petroleum Facilities Guards, a militia allied with the GNA and led by tribal leader Ibrahim Jathran.
All three Mediterranean ports are in Libya’s “oil crescent”, an area seen as a vital source of income for the GNA which has struggled to assert its authority across the country.
The U.N. -brokered presidency council ” which is tasked with forming a unity government” said late Sunday that the takeover by Hifter’s forces is “contradicting the path of reconciliation and frustrating Libyans”.
As the eastern region cities prepare to witness protests in support of LNA, the governments of U.S., Germany, Spain, France, UK and Italy denounced what they described as attacks against oil ports in Zuwaytina, Ras Lanuf, Sidra and al-Barika.
He said Haftar’s move was by “popular demand” and was authorised by Libya’s official institutions.
The forces are commanded by controversial General Khalifa Haftar, who has refused to back the GNA and supports the parallel authority based in eastern Libya near the border with Egypt. Without directly addressing the seizure of the oil ports, he said he would not “lead any Libyan group or run a war against any other Libyan group for political or regional or ideological motives”, calling for a dialogue among all parties.
The attack on the ports came to “take advantage of Misrata’s exhaustion after Sirte” and “undermine any negotiation on the future of the GNA”, Toaldo said.
Control by Haftar’s brigades will also raise questions for the market about the legality of crude exports by a force opposed to the internationally recognized government in Tripoli.
The attacks have prompted worries about a wider battle over Libya’s resources, as the oil-rich country has the world’s ninth-largest oil reserves.
“We condemn attacks on facilities in Libya’s al-Hilal oil area by groups/elements that challenge the authority of Libya’s Presidential Council which has worldwide legitimacy”, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Before 2011, Libya had a peak of pumping 1.6 million bpd.
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However, it has been hard for the fledgling Tripoli-based government to assert authority over the country, which is still home to a number of rival factions that oppose it.
