LONDON: The longtime speaker of the Libyan parliament was ousted on Tuesday in a move likely to inject fresh tension into the country\u2019s largely frozen political landscape.<\/p>\n
Aguila Saleh, a supporter of the Libyan National Army commander, Khalifa Haftar, was removed after 12 years in the post. Al-Salhin Abdelnabi Al-Obeidi replaced him as speaker of the eastern-based parliament.<\/p>\n
The change comes at a delicate moment in a country split between two rival governments backed by armed militias and international patrons. The international community is pressing for reforms that would lead to reunification of Libya\u2019s fractured institutions, and preserve the momentum in efforts to hold long-delayed elections, while warning that any setback could deepen divisions between the rival authorities.<\/p>\n
Analysts, however, say the shake-up might further entrench those divisions, especially as Haftar moves to consolidate his own power.<\/p>\n
On Monday, 98 MPs approved amendments to the internal rules of the House of Representatives that will create a new presidency and limit the speaker and deputies to a single 12-month term, ending the open-ended arrangement that has been in place since 2014.<\/p>\n A day later, in a session chaired by the second deputy speaker, Mesbah Douma, lawmakers moved to replace Saleh amid growing displeasure over his leadership.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was significant discontent among MPs with the previous leadership over numerous errors,\u201d lawmaker Jebree Oheida told Reuters.<\/p>\n \u201cWe tried to engage with the leadership to address these issues, but to no avail. Among these errors were decisions made without consulting MPs.\u201d<\/p>\n Saleh, who had led the House of Representatives since August 2014 and is a close political ally of Haftar, had rejected Monday\u2019s session as \u201cunofficial\u201d and said it had \u201cno legal effect.\u201d<\/p>\n Ahead of Tuesday\u2019s vote, he also said he had canceled Monday\u2019s session, which he called, arguing that MPs had not followed the legal procedures required under the parliament\u2019s laws and internal rules, particularly those governing amendments.<\/p>\n Two weeks earlier, 86 lawmakers in a joint statement accused Saleh of blocking them from entering parliament\u2019s headquarters and preventing a quorum for debate on parliamentary reform and internal rule changes.<\/p>\n At the center of the dispute was Law No. 4 of 2014, which set out the internal regulations of the House of Representatives, but did not impose a fixed term on the speaker or require regular internal elections. Some lawmakers wanted to change that, and argued for annual votes to be held to renew the leadership of the chamber.<\/p>\n Saleh, a major figure in post-Qaddafi Libya, has long been viewed as a spoiler by the US and EU, which imposed sanctions on him \u2014 then lifted them \u2014 over his role in obstructing UN-backed peace efforts and the formation of a unity government.<\/p>\n His replacement, Al-Obeidi, is an engineer-turned-politician with foreign affairs experience, including as chair of the Libyan-Turkish Parliamentary Friendship Committee.<\/p>\n In a statement on Tuesday, Haftar welcomed the leadership amendments for the House of Representatives, and reaffirmed the General Command\u2019s support for the chamber and its new leadership. He also wished Al-Obeidi success in advancing Libya\u2019s transition to a stable and unified state.<\/p>\n But analysts told Arab News the move looked less like a step toward unity and more like another sign of Haftar\u2019s efforts to consolidate power.<\/p>\n \u201cSaleh has been a constant political obstacle to unity, to the point he was sanctioned by the US,\u201d Ben Fishman, the Feinstein Family Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Arab News.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the manner in which he was ousted shows that he was only as powerful as Haftar would allow him to be. His removal is another indication of the Haftar family\u2019s efforts to consolidate the east.\u201d<\/p>\n Haftar became eastern Libya\u2019s de facto leader after launching Operation Dignity in 2014, an offensive that drove out the extremist-led government in Benghazi.<\/p>\n Over time, he consolidated his grip in the east with the backing of the House of Representatives \u2014 which gave him political cover before becoming increasingly subordinate to his military command \u2014 and took control of key economic and strategic assets, including oil fields, seaports, airports, military bases and the central bank\u2019s printing press.<\/p>\n His son and deputy, Saddam Haftar, has since emerged as one of the main faces of eastern Libya\u2019s outreach in unity talks with the internationally recognized Government of National Unity, which is based in western Libya, in Tripoli.<\/p>\n He has met US, Turkish, Bahraini and Emirati officials, and is increasingly being presented as a possible bridge figure in reunification efforts, including the most recent pushes by the UN and the US.<\/p>\n The latest of those efforts was an agreement brokered by the UN in late August, known as the 4+4 initiative, which brought together two representatives from each of four key institutions and set out a road map for presidential and parliamentary elections within two years.<\/p>\n However, experts remain skeptical of the Haftar camp, and the removal of Saleh from power has added another layer of uncertainty.<\/p>\n \u201cThe change will certainly challenge the UN\u2019s 4+4 initiative, since the HoR endorsed it,\u201d said Fishman. \u201cIf we see a change in the representatives from the east to the 4+4, it will pose a serious challenge to the whole process.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s too early to see how it will impact the Boulos plan, which has encountered Libyan domestic opposition,\u201d he added, in reference to a proposal from the US senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs, Massad Boulos.<\/p>\n The UN-led 4+4 initiative followed months of negotiations between Libya\u2019s rival blocs. It sought to break the cycle of temporary political arrangements that has persisted since the fall of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.<\/p>\n Previous efforts at a lasting settlement repeatedly stalled over disputes about electoral laws, institutional legitimacy, control of state bodies and the distribution of power. That history means implementation will be the key test. But experts warned that success would depend on whether rival power centers trust each other enough to honor the deal and avoid a repeat of past failures.<\/p>\n The House of Representatives and the Government of National Stability, backed by Haftar and his Libyan National Army, want a new, unified interim government, potentially one that strengthens their own camp.<\/p>\n Some proposals have even emerged suggesting that Abd Al-Hamid Dbeibeh, the rival Government of National Unity\u2019s current prime minister, could remain in that post while Saddam Haftar became president, with executive powers.<\/p>\n The Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, in contrast, wants elections to be held first. It has resisted any arrangement that appears like it might entrench Haftar\u2019s influence or sideline institutions in the west of the country.<\/p>\n With the UN-brokered agreement leaving some of those questions unresolved, the US stepped in with a parallel, partly overlapping initiative that aimed to advance the political process and unify Libya\u2019s institutions.<\/p>\n Presented as complementary to the UN effort rather than a replacement, Washington\u2019s push reportedly gained more traction in the east because it was tied to practical incentives, such as military coordination, reconstruction and economic cooperation, rather than serving as a purely political road map.<\/p>\n In June, Saddam Haftar met the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to discuss reunification efforts, a move experts said helped cement the legitimacy and leverage of the Haftar camp.<\/p>\n Against that backdrop, analysts said, the removal of Saleh \u201csays more about consolidation inside the east than about any shift between east and west,\u201d even as foreign actors continue to watch closely.<\/p>\n Frank Talbot, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council\u2019s North Africa Program, told Arab News: \u201cDecision-making in eastern Libya now runs more clearly through the Haftar family, and that likely strengthens their hand in any national bargain.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the short run, it is likely viewed in Washington and other capitals as removing a source of delay on the UN road map. How Ankara and Cairo react will determine whether Saleh has any options to push back.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the Haftar camp\u2019s standing as a unity partner already appears to be under strain. Last week, Tripoli-based officials accused Saddam Haftar of overseeing a \u201cterror cell\u201d behind drone attacks on fuel-storage facilities and power stations in western Libya, allegations that have reportedly complicated reunification efforts.<\/p>\n For now, attention turns to, whose first moves as speaker will show where the House of Representatives now stands and how much leverage Haftar really has.<\/p>\n Al-Obeidi\u2019s \u201cfirst test is legal standing, since Saleh called the session that cleared the way for him invalid,\u201d said Talbot.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter that, the measure is whether he runs the House as a legislature that convenes regularly, works constructively with the UN Support Mission in Libya on the road map, and passes the laws that economic and security unification will require.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Al-Salhin](\"https:\/\/assets.maestronewsroom.com\/media\/30f6532d-717b-4366-9158-9c455299fcd9\/1791376702120-671735cd3f3227bc.jpeg\")
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