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| Africa North |
| HoR’s Chief of Staff Nazhuri threatens to attack ships approaching oil ports |
| 2016-07-27 |
| [Libya Herald] The House of Representatives’ (HoR) Libyan National Army Chief of Staff, Abdelrazak Nazhuri, warned that any foreign oil tankers approaching the Libyan coast will be targeted by the air force. Nazhuri, who has also been appointed military ruler in the east, said that only oil tankers that had been sanctioned by the eastern-based National Oil Corporation (NOC) recognized by the HoR would be allowed to enter Libyan waters. Nazhuri’s statement seems to have put an end to the reunification of the Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... and Benghazi NOC reached in July this year. His threat has come on the back of the meeting by UNSMIL chief Martin Kobler with regional strongman and Petroleum Facilities Guard head Ibrahim Jadhran in the eastern port of Ras Lanuf last week. Kobler was hoping to persuade Jadhran to reopen the eastern oil ports of Ras Lanuf, Sidra and Zuetina. Jadhran has been blockading the export of oil from the local coastal oil port terminals under his control since the time of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan ... served as a diplomat for Libya during the 1970s, serving in India under Ambassador Mohammed Magariaf. Both men defected in 1980 and went on to form the National Front for the Salvation of Libya. Zeidan spent nearly three decades in exile in Geneva after the defection. During the revolution Zeidan served as the National Transitional Council's Europe envoy, and is credited as having played a key role in persuading French President Nicolas Sarkozy to support the anti-Qadaffy forces... back in August 2013. As a result, Libyan oil production has plummeted from a post Qadaffy high of 1.5 million in 2013 to anything ranging from 200,000 to 400,000 bpd in the intervening years. The Kobler-Jadhran meeting has, however, invoked a negative reaction from the tribes controlling the actual inland oilfields and regions which the pipelines pass through on their way to the coastal ports and oil terminals. The tribes said that Kobler must speak directly to them and reach a separate agreement with them if he wished to have oil production resumed at the source. They also insisted that they only recognize the HoR and its Abduallah Thinni government in Beida. Jadhran, on the other hand, now claims to recognize the only internationally recognized government of Faiez Serraj and his PC/GNA in Tripoli. To further complicate matters, Mustafa Sanalla, the chairman of the Tripoli-based and PC/GNA recognized NOC, has slammed Kobler for meeting Jadhran. In a leaked letter to Kobler, a copy of which was seen by Libya Herald, Sanalla criticized the UNSMIL chief for giving implicit recognition to Jadhran who Sanalla labelled a ’’criminal’’. Sanalla objected to Jadhran being rewarded having cost the Libyan state ’’over $ 100 billion in lost (oil) revenues’’ in nearly three years. |
| Posted by:Fred |