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By Libya Herald staff.
Torbuk, 3 September 2014:
Abdullah Al-Thinni’s new, slimmed down cabinet will contain many of the same faces as in . . .[restrict]the outgoing administration which resigned last Friday ahead of the House of Representatives appointing a new prime minister. On Monday, it asked Thinni to stay on but with a smaller government.
According to a House of Representative source, Saleh Marghani who offered his resignation ten days ago because he felt he was unable to do his job properly resignation was persuaded to stay on, this time as Deputy Prime Minister.
Mohamed Abdulaziz will stay on at the Foreign Ministry and Saleh Mazegh at the Interior Ministry, but now as full time rather than “acting” minister.
Habib Al-Amin, Culture and Information Minister in the outgoing cabinet, is also expected to remain in the government but with an enlarged portfolio.
The post of Defence Minister, however, appears to be still undecided.
Some sources say that it will go to Salem Joha, who has been mentioned for the job in the past but turned it down. Leader of Misrata’s Military Council during revolution and seen as a moderate, he had a major falling out with Misrata’s more militant former Congressman Salah Badi, presently heavily involved in the Libya Dawn Operation in Tripoli. Joha is currently Defence Attaché at the Libya Embassy in the UAE.
The Libya Herald has been told by reliable sources that former Interior Minister Ashour Shuwail had also been offered the portfolio but had not so far accepted. He quit Ali Zeidan’s government in May last year, reportedly exasperated by the former prime minister’s constant refusal to back his plans for firmer action against Islamists in Benghazi and Derna.
Thinni’s objective with his new government, the HoR source said, was “continuity”. There would be “no serious changes” at this point, he stated, because Thinni wanted the same people he was been working with till now to be in his crisis government. [/restrict]
