BENGHAZI, Libya: Libyan state oil firm NOC will reopen the El Sharara oilfield, the country’s biggest, only after an inspection to establish security, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
The comments came shortly after officials for eastern Libyan forces said they handed over control of the field to an oil security force to encourage NOC to restart production that has been halted since December.
Control over the oilfield has been claimed by different forces since tribesmen and state guards seized it in December, making financial and other demands. NOC declared force majeure, a waiver on its contracts.
“NOC has sent an inspection team to assess security at Sharara and to verify that all armed militia have left the field prior to force majeure being lifted,” the spokesman said by text message.
A no-fly zone imposed by the eastern military meant this could take some days, he said, adding that the zone indicated a “serious continuing threat level.”
The eastern military has said it will not allow flights to southern Libya without its permission.
“We call on NOC to lift force majeure,” said Naji Al-Maghrabi, the eastern-based commander of the state oil guards appointed to protect the field, in a statement posted online.
A spokesman for the eastern military confirmed the handing over of the field to the oil force.
It was not immediately clear if handing over security to guards under the control of an eastern-based commander would meet NOC’s demands.
The eastern forces launched an offensive in mid-January to secure the southern oilfields, which include El Sharara.
Libya’s NOC to assess security at El Sharara oilfield before resuming production
Libya’s NOC to assess security at El Sharara oilfield before resuming production
- The field, which had been producing about 315,000 barrels per day (bpd), was closed after a group of state guards and tribesmen seized it
- Libyan forces loyal to a commander based in the east of the politically divided nation took control of the field last week
New Lebanon president starts consultations on naming PM
- Names floated for the post of prime minster, which is reserved for a Sunni Muslim, include current caretaker premier Najib Mikati, anti-Hezbollah lawmaker Fouad Makhzoumi, and Nawaf Salam, presiding judge at the International Court of Justice in the Hague
BEIRUT, Lebanon: New Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will begin parliamentary consultations Monday over designating a prime minister to form a government that will have to face major challenges in the crisis-hit country.
The consultations, a constitutional requirement under Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system, come just days after Aoun’s election amid foreign pressure for swift progress — particularly from the United States and Saudi Arabia.
The small Mediterranean nation had been without a president since October 2022, run by a caretaker government despite a crushing economic crisis and a war between Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel.
Names floated for the post of prime minster, which is reserved for a Sunni Muslim, include current caretaker premier Najib Mikati, anti-Hezbollah lawmaker Fouad Makhzoumi, and Nawaf Salam, presiding judge at the International Court of Justice in the Hague.
Aoun’s consultations with political blocs begin at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) with a meeting with powerful parliament speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri.
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that both the group and Berri’s Amal movement supported Mikati.
The incumbent’s re-designation is “part of the accord reached with the Saudi envoy to Lebanon... that led Hezbollah and Amal to vote for Aoun as president” last week, the source said on condition of anonymity as the matter is sensitive.
Saudi Arabia and the United States were among key countries driving diplomatic efforts to end the presidential vacuum.
Riyadh has restored its interest in Lebanon’s political scene after years of distancing itself in protest at the influence of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, which was heavily weakened in its latest devastating war with Israel.
Mikati, who has already formed three governments and has good relations with Lebanon’s political parties and several foreign countries, has denied any such prior arrangement exists.
One of the country’s richest men, Mikati has headed the country in a caretaker capacity throughout the presidential vacuum.
Mikati said on the sidelines of the presidential vote on Thursday that he was ready to serve the country “if needed.”
Whoever heads Lebanon’s new government will face major challenges, including implementing reforms to satisfy international donors amid the grinding five-year economic crisis.
They will also face the daunting task of reconstructing swathes of the country after the Israel-Hezbollah war and implementing the November 27 ceasefire agreement, which includes the thorny issue of disarming Hezbollah.
Opposition lawmakers from a grouping that includes the Christian party Lebanese Forces (LF) and smaller blocs announced on Saturday they would nominate Makhzoumi, a wealthy businessman who has good ties with Gulf countries and Washington.
US envoy Amos Hochstein visited Makhzoumi’s home last week for a meeting with opposition lawmakers as part of a trip to Lebanon.
Other lawmakers have instead proposed International Court of Justice judge Salam, a highly respected former ambassador whose name frequently comes up in such consultations.
Late Sunday saw last-ditch attempts to unify opposition and independent positions, with the aim of rallying around Salam and blocking Mikati’s path to the premiership.
Hezbollah’s opponents see Mikati as part of an old political system that the militant group has within its grip.
After Aoun pledged a “new phase” for Lebanon in his inaugural speech, LF leader Samir Geagea said that “like it or not, Mikati was from the previous lot.”
According to Lebanon’s constitution, the president designates the prime minister in consultation with the parliament speaker, choosing the candidate with the most votes during the consultations.
Nominating a premier does not guarantee a new government will be formed imminently.
The process has previously taken weeks or even months due to deep political divisions and horse-trading.
Israel says strikes Hezbollah sites, Lebanon-Syria border smuggling routes
- The strikes come just two weeks before the January 26 deadline for implementing the November ceasefire, which both sides have accused the other of violating
BEIRUT, Lebanon: Israel carried out air strikes in Lebanon Sunday, targeting areas in the east and south according to Lebanese state media, with the Israeli military saying it hit Hezbollah targets including smuggling routes along the border with Syria.
The air strikes placed further strain on a fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group, which came into effect on November 27.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Israeli aircraft targeted the outskirts of Janta in the eastern Baalbek region as well as areas near Nabatieh in the south. It did not say whether there were casualties.
The Israeli military said it struck a number of targets it had presented to ceasefire monitors as threats.
“Among the targets struck were a rocket launcher site, a military site, and routes along the Syria-Lebanon border used to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah,” it said.
The strikes come just two weeks before the January 26 deadline for implementing the November ceasefire, which both sides have accused the other of violating.
The Israeli military statement said it was operating “in accordance with the ceasefire understandings.”
Under the terms of the deal, Hezbollah is to dismantle its remaining military infrastructure in the south and pull its forces back north of the Litani River, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border.
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon this month accused Israel of a “flagrant violation” of the Security Council resolution which forms the basis of the ceasefire.
Israeli strikes in south Lebanon killed five people on Friday, according to the Lebanese health ministry, with the Israeli military saying it targeted a Hezbollah weapons truck.
Biden calls for immediate ceasefire in call with Netanyahu, White House says
- Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN’s “State of the Union” program earlier on Sunday that the parties were “very, very close” to reaching a deal
- Netanyahu thanked Biden for lifelong support of Israel, White House says
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden spoke on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said, as US officials race to reach a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20.
Biden and Netanyahu discussed efforts underway to reach a deal to halt the fighting in the Palestinian enclave and free the remaining hostages there, the White House said in a statement after the two leaders spoke by telephone.
Biden “stressed the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal,” it said.
Netanyahu updated Biden on progress in the talks and on the mandate he has given his top-level security delegation now in Doha in order to advance a hostage deal, Netanyahu said in a statement.
The two leaders also discussed “the fundamentally changed regional circumstances following the ceasefire deal in Lebanon, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, and the weakening of Iran’s power in the region,” the White House said.
Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN’s “State of the Union” program earlier on Sunday that the parties were “very, very close” to reaching a deal, but still had to get it across the finish line.
He said Biden was getting daily updates on the talks in Doha, where Israeli and Palestinian officials have said since Thursday that some progress has been made in the indirect talks between Israel and militant group Hamas.
“We are still determined to use every day we have in office to get this done,” Sullivan said, “and we are not, by any stretch of imagination, setting this aside.”
He said there was still a chance to reach an agreement before Biden leaves office, but that it was also possible “Hamas, in particular, remains intransigent.”
During their call, Netanyahu also thanked Biden for his lifelong support of Israel and “the extraordinary support from the United States for Israel’s security and national defense,” the White House said.
Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and gripped by a humanitarian crisis, and most of its population displaced.
Vice President-elect JD Vance told the “Fox News Sunday” program in an interview taped on Saturday that he expects a deal for the release of US hostages in the Middle East to be announced in the final days of the Biden administration, maybe in the last day or two.
President-elect Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel, has strongly backed Netanyahu’s goal of destroying Hamas. He has promised to bring peace to the Middle East, but has not said how he would accomplish that.
Thousands flee southern Sudan town amid escalating clashes
PORT SUDAN: Thousands have fled a town in southern Sudan since clashes erupted last week between the Sudanese army and rival paramilitary troops, the UN migration agency said Sunday.
The conflict in Sudan, which erupted in mid-April 2023, has pitted the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the Rapid Support Forces.
“Between 1,000 and 3,000 households were displaced from Um Rawaba town” in North Kordofan state in the country’s south in just five days, the UN’s International Organization for Migration said. Clashes broke out in the area last week between the army and the RSF. The military has led an advance on the central Sudan state of Al-Jazira, some 300 kilometers northeast.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Families fled ‘due to increased security concerns following continued clashes across the locality,’ the International Organization for Migration said.
• In North Kordofan, over 205,000 people are currently displaced, according to the latest UN figures.
• The war has also claimed the lives of tens of thousands and pushed the country to the brink of famine.
Families fled “due to increased security concerns following continued clashes across the locality,” the IOM said.
In North Kordofan, over 205,000 people are currently displaced, according to the latest UN figures released on Wednesday.
Across the country, 11.5 million people are internally displaced — including 2.7 displaced in prior conflicts — in what the UN has called the world’s largest displacement crisis.
The war has also claimed the lives of tens of thousands and pushed the country to the brink of famine.
Last month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification review said that famine has gripped five areas in western and southern Sudan, and is expected to spread to five more.
Around 350,000 people in North Kordofan are currently experiencing emergency levels of hunger, the report found — the final stage before famine is declared.
The IPC said that “only a ceasefire can reduce the risk of famine spreading further,” with 24.6 million people — nearly half the population — already facing “high levels of acute food insecurity.”
Kuwait emir discusses ties with UK PM
LONDON: The emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, received a phone call on Sunday from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
They discussed the strong relations between the two countries, and expressed a shared desire to enhance and strengthen them further, the Kuwait News Agency reported.
Starmer expressed his best wishes to the emir, and hope for further progress, prosperity and growth for Kuwait under his leadership.
Sheikh Meshal emphasized his country’s commitment to strengthening ties with the UK, and enhancing cooperation across various fields and sectors, KUNA reported.
