No Result
View All Result
Saturday, October 18, 2025
23 °c
Tripoli
24 ° Sat
24 ° Sun
  • Advertising
  • Contact
LibyaHerald
  • Home
  • Libya
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Magazine
  • Advertising
  • Login
  • Register
SUBSCRIBE
  • Home
  • Libya
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Magazine
  • Advertising
  • Login
  • Register
No Result
View All Result
LibyaHerald
No Result
View All Result
Home Libya

Serraj backs down over sacking his dominant Interior Minister

bySami Zaptia
September 4, 2020
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A
Serraj backs down over sacking his dominant Interior Minister

A beaming Bashagha is welcomed by his loyal forces after being reinstated as Interior Minister by Serraj (Photo: Tripoli Interior Ministry).

By Sami Zaptia.

A beaming Bashagha is welcomed by his loyal forces after being reinstated as Interior Minister by Serraj yesterday (Photo: Tripoli Interior Ministry).

London, 4 September 2020:

Faiez Serraj, Libya’s internationally recognized Prime Minister backed down yesterday from sacking Fathi Bashagha, his powerful Misratan Interior Minister. The humiliating climbdown came in the form of an official decree (584) yesterday by Serraj, lifting Bashagha’s ‘‘temporary suspension’’.

In turn, Bashagha read a prepared and clearly compromise statement in a video clip posted on both his Interior Ministry and Serraj’s government Facebook page.

In its statement, the Serraj government said that it had held an ‘‘accountability session’’ with Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha on Thursday about the demonstrations that took place in Tripoli during the past period, the role of the Interior Ministry in securing them, and in securing their non-penetration and abuses that some demonstrators have been subjected to.

RELATED POSTS

High Court rejects Mishri’s appeal against Takala’s victory as HSC head – both still claim leadership of the body

Op-Ed: International community complicit with Libya’s corrupt political and military elite in delaying democratic elections

The statement said that, after the meeting, which lasted for over five hours and was held at the Cabinet Office with only the Presidency Council members, Bashagha confirmed the cohesion of all state security institutions, and that they work under the leadership and coordination of the Serraj Presidential Council.

Bashagha explained that the Interior Minister’s compliance with the investigation in accordance with Presidential Council Resolution 562 confirms the work of the Minister of Interior under the leadership of the Presidential Council and respect for the state’s hierarchy and the discipline of its institutions under the rule of law.

Bashagha also stressed the Ministry of Interior’s continued integration, absorption and rehabilitation of the security and military force to enable it to perform its role within the security and defence integration programme, in recognition of its heroic role in defending the capital, Tripoli.

Bashagha stressed the commitment of state institutions to exercise their specific competences in accordance with Libyan legislation and to integrate in meeting the needs of citizens’’.

When Bashagha arrived at the Prime Minister’s Office, his loyal Interior Ministry forces surrounded the location as if to impose a siege. The message was later reaffirmed when his Ministry posted 18 photos of Bashagha ‘‘being welcomed (hailed?)’’ by his forces, some of which were in full combat gear.

 

Bashagha’s loyal Interior Ministry forces welcome their boss hours after being reinstated to his job by Serraj yesterday (Photo: Tripoli Interior Ministry).

 

Analysis

The episode manifests the new post-Qaddafi and the new Skhirat / Libyan Political Agreement Libya. It is a Libya of militias with token civilian rulers all under the auspices of the international community.

The Bashagha incident highlighted the fact that Serraj is a token leader and that he has no power to sack his Interior Minister. Bashagha challenged Serraj to a public showdown where the administration’s dirty linen and skeletons in the cupboards could be aired. Serraj, his domestic and international backers and sponsors, chose to pass.

The photographs of Bashagha with his forces, in one of which he was clearly smirking with joy, show who runs western Libya. Serraj has made Bashagha a new populist hero in Tripoli and Misrata. Bashagha may have been reinstated as Interior Minister, but he might as well have been anointed as Libya’s real Prime Minister.

The international community: stability v progress

It is clear from the events of the last few days that what is good for Libyans is not necessarily what is good for the international community. The international community wants stability in Libya – at any cost. It simply wants an interlocutor, a person they know, they are used to and can and have done business with. This is not strange or new. Many Arab and developing world states have been ruled for decades by convenient friends of the western community.

Serraj has been in office, but definitely not in effective, progressive power, into five years now. Libyans’ needs and demands can wait another 5 years.

The fears of unknown change by the international community range from destabilizing the new Hafter equilibrium and reopening a window for continued and increased Russian (proxy?) influence.

Turkey, having, thanks to Hafter and his foreign backers, obtained a god-sent military, political and economic foothold in western Libya, did not want the applecart to be toppled. They want the continuation of the status quo and the hope of resumption of multi-billion stalled contracts.

Italy wants the continuation of an interlocutor in Serraj and Maetig and a continuation of the Libya’s control of the flow of illegal migration across the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, into its fifth year, the Skhirat administration lives on while the lot of Libyans regresses. Five years on, power, water, mobile phone, internet cuts continue. Five years on, black-markets and queues for petrol, diesel and cooking gas continue. And five years on the cash crisis continues while healthcare and the fight against the spread of the Coronavirus regress.

This much was admitted by Acting UNSMIL head Stephanie Williams in her latest brief to the UN Security Council on Tuesday. She warned that ‘‘All these elements are producing a fertile ground for social unrest across the country and confirm once more that the status-quo is simply unsustainable’’, and that ‘‘Instability is further compounded by degraded socio-economic conditions, fuelling popular unrest and threatening the fragile calm required to advance our security and political discussions’’.

Tags: Faiez Serraj Presidency Council Government of National Accord PC GNAFathi Bashagha Interior MinisterfeaturedLPA Libyan Political Agreement Skhirat December 2015Tripoli demonstrations 23 August

Related Posts

Minister of Industry meets the Committee for Localisation of Oil Materials and Equipment Industry
Libya

Committee for Localisation of Oil Field Equipment invites local and international investors to manufacture oil materials and equipment locally

October 17, 2025
LTT and GIA sign cooperation agreement on electronic connectivity
Libya

General Information Authority organizes workshop to prepare a national strategy for artificial intelligence in cooperation with ESCWA

October 16, 2025
US conducts 57 anti IS airstrikes in Sirte
Libya

AFRICOM Deputy Commander visits Libya, announces Libyan participation in ”Exercise Flintlock 2026”

October 16, 2025
‘‘U.S. experts’’ visit Sirte’s single pivot agricultural irrigation circles – 87 irrigation circles will be restarted in 2025
Libya

National Development Authority signs contract to develop Sirte’s Mahari Hotel and the Guest Palaces area in line with Libya’s 2030 Vision

October 13, 2025
Atletico Madrid win Benghazi’s Reconstruction Cup after beating Inter Milan 4-3 on penalties – great political showpiece for Hafter
Libya

Atletico Madrid win Benghazi’s Reconstruction Cup after beating Inter Milan 4-3 on penalties – great political showpiece for Hafter

October 13, 2025
No saviour for Libya except through constitutional based elections to end transitional periods: Grand Mufti
Libya

Grand Mufti raises objections to CBL’s supposedly Islamic – Sharia compliant certificates of deposit

October 12, 2025
Next Post
Libya’s miserable summer continues with another total power blackout in south and central Libya

Libya's miserable summer continues with another total power blackout in south and central Libya

Labour Ministry holds meeting with private sector on its role in its new employment programme

libyaherald-Ads

Top Stories

  • Atletico Madrid win Benghazi’s Reconstruction Cup after beating Inter Milan 4-3 on penalties – great political showpiece for Hafter

    Atletico Madrid win Benghazi’s Reconstruction Cup after beating Inter Milan 4-3 on penalties – great political showpiece for Hafter

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Emirates Airlines security delegation visits Tripoli to begin Mitiga Airport inspection tour

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • After its withdrawal from circulation of certain banknotes, CBL reveals that currency printed unofficially in Russia totalled to 6.5 billion dinars

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • National Oil Corporation discusses prospects for technical cooperation with America’s Halliburton

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Economic Conference on Diversifying Sources of Income held in Tripoli

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
ADVERTISEMENT
LibyaHerald

The Libya Herald first appeared on 17 February 2012 – the first anniversary of the Libyan Revolution. Since then, it has become a favourite go-to source on news about Libya, for many in Libya and around the world, regularly attracting millions of hits.

Recent News

Tripoli to host Libya Africa International Gas Forum 2025 (LAIGF25) from 6 to 7 December

Committee for Localisation of Oil Field Equipment invites local and international investors to manufacture oil materials and equipment locally

Sitemap

  • Why subscribe?
  • Terms & Conditions
  • FAQs
  • Copyright & Intellectual Property Rights
  • Subscribe now

Newsletters

    Be the first to know latest important news & events directly to your inbox.

    Sending ...

    By signing up, I agree to our TOS and Privacy Policy.

    © 2022 LibyaHerald - Powered by Sparx Solutions.

    Welcome Back!

    Login to your account below

    Forgotten Password? Sign Up

    Create New Account!

    Fill the forms below to register

    *By registering into our website, you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
    All fields are required. Log In

    Retrieve your password

    Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

    Log In
    No Result
    View All Result
    • Login
    • Sign Up
    • Libya
    • Business
    • Advertising
    • About us
    • BusinessEye Magazine
    • Letters
    • Features
    • Why subscribe?
    • FAQs
    • Contact

    © 2022 LibyaHerald - Powered by Sparx Solutions.

    This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.