Libya MPs oust PM after rebel oil shipment escapes

TRIPOLI. — The Libyan parliament ousted Prime Minister Ali Zeidan yesterday and named the defence minister as caretaker premier until a permanent replacement has been approved, MPs said.The vote of no-confidence in Zeidan came after a tanker laden with oil from a rebel-held terminal in eastern Libya broke through a naval blockade and escaped to sea despite his government’s threats to block it by force if necessary.

“The Congress voted to withdraw its confidence in the prime minister by 124 votes,” MP Suleiman al-Zubi told AFP.
Defence Minister Abdullah al-Thani was named interim premier for the two weeks that General National Congress now has to agree on a permanent replacement, he added.

Previous attempts to bring down Zeidan had failed to win the required majority of 120 of the GNC’s 194 members.

The tanker laden with oil from a rebel-held terminal in eastern Libya broke through a naval blockade and escaped to sea yesterday, prompting angry MPs to move to oust the prime minister.

The North Korean-flagged Morning Glory, which is reported to have taken on at least 234 000 barrels of crude, is the first vessel to have loaded oil from a rebel-held terminal since the revolt against the Tripoli authorities erupted last July.

Zeidan’s government had threatened armed action, even an air strike, to prevent the tanker getting away with its cargo of oil bought from the rebels’ self-declared autonomous regional government.

But members of Libya’s parliament, the General National Congress, said that bad weather prevented the navy’s small vessels from following the huge ship out into the Mediterranean from the port of Al-Sidra.

“The oil tanker took advantage of poor weather conditions to head for the open sea. The ships that were surrounding it were not in a position to follow,” one GNC member told AFP.

Abdelkader Houili, who sits on the GNC’s energy committee, told Al-Nabaa television that the navy’s warships, which mainly consist of fast patrol boats, had been forced to sail close to the coast because of the weather.

“The tanker then took advantage of the gap to head for the open sea,” he said.

The Morning Glory’s escape is a new humiliation for the Tripoli authorities, who have struggled to assert control over much of the country since the Nato-backed 2011 revolt that ended Muammar Gaddafi’s rule. — AFP.