By Libya Herald reporter.
Tunis, 15 August 2016:
The Libyan National Army (LNA) will take over the oil terminals at Zueitina, Sidra and Ras Lanuf Major General Abdul Razzaq Al-Nazhuri has predicted.
The general, who is the LNA’s chief of staff but has also been appointed military governor the area from Tobruk to Ben Jawad by House of Representatives President Ageela Saleh, also repeated his earlier threat that any oil tankers which try to dock at the oil terminals without permission would be attacked.
Any move to take over the three terminals, currently held by central region Petroleum Facilities Guards headed by Ibrahim Jadhran, is likely to result in clashes. A week ago, the arrival of an LNA unit just 10 kilometres from the Zueitina terminal upped tension in the area, although in the end there were no clashes. At present the unit is still there.
“Our entry into the ports is to protect them, not to occupy them or to be substitutes for the mercenaries or thieves who preceded us,” Nazhuri told Reuters in an interview in Marj.
Jadhran, to whom Nazhuri was referring, signed a controversial deal with the Government of National Accord last month to reopen the Ras Lanouf and Sidra terminal. It has not happened so far, possibly because the GNA has not had the more than LD 200 million it reportedly agreed to pay Jedhran for the reopening. The deal was attacked by Mustafa Sanalla, head of the Tripoli-based National Oil Corporation as setting “a terrible precedent” to others to try and extort money from the state by shutting pipelines, oil fields or ports.
