26 June 2024: Acting UNSR Koury briefs UNSC, Renewed fighting in Zawiya and opening of Ras Jadir Delayed,

And SLB announces new contract in Libya despite ongoing backpayments

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Acting UNSR Koury briefs UNSC, eliciting blowback from opponents of the West

Incident: On 19 June, acting UN Special Representative (UNSR) – also known as SRSG – to Libya Stephanie Koury gave her first briefing to the UNSC. Rather than presenting her personal views, she couched her observations as the product of ‘consultations’ that she has undertaken with a range of Libyans representing different segments of the country. Largely stating the obvious, she remarked that many Libyans are still concerned about the de facto division of the country and the persistence of parallel government institutions. She emphasized that this state of affairs undermines Libya's economy, security and stability, as well as its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Overwhelmingly, Libyans in Koury’s consultations conveyed the need for a political agreement -- so that credible national elections can be held to restore legitimacy to all institutions. Many emphasized the importance of a “pact” that would affirm the parties’ respect for electoral outcomes. Koury said, in addition to a national political solution, many Libyans have emphasized to her a perceived need for the execution of local elections, to ensure accountable service delivery. Her comments on this regard come while voter registration for municipal elections in 60 municipalities across Libya opened, voter registration, in particular female voter registration, remains quite low.

She stated that the recent clashes between armed groups in Al-Jamil, Zawiyya and Tripoli underscore the need for unified, reformed security sector institutions and the importance of local mediation efforts. While no formal violation of the October 2020 Ceasefire Agreement was recorded during the reporting period, progress on the withdrawal of foreign fighters and mercenaries remain stalled.

Finally, Koury said that while the institutional and political rifts continue to deepen, ordinary Libyans long for peace, stability, prosperity and reconciliation. She stated that Libyans must themselves jump start resolute and united action to move the political process forward, and only then can the support of the international community be decisive.

Several representatives responded to Koury’s speech and weighed in with different views, including representatives of the US, Russia, China, France, and the UK, as well as the three African nations on the UNSC – Sierra Leone, Algeria and Mozambique.

Her speech also elicited backlash from Libyan actors. On 20 June, former Minister of Interior and former Government of National Stability (GNS) Prime Minister Fathi Bashaagha criticized the previous day’s briefing by Koury, calling it ‘a disgrace’. Bashaagha undiplomatically added, ‘She spoke a lot and said nothing. Koury was not able to describe the situation in Libya accurately and clearly although she has travelled a lot and held numerous meetings in the East and West’.

Also on 20 June, High Council of State (HCS) member Saad bin Sharada expressed his own disparaging comments on Koury’s briefing, claiming that ‘she seeks to repeat the experience of Stephanie Williams, who was implementing the American agenda in Libya.’

On 22 June, House of Representatives (HoR) member Abdel Moneim al-Arfi stated in an interview to the Russian Sputnik News Agency that the resignation of former UNSR Abdoulaye Bathily was a rigged ‘prelude’ to Stephanie Koury assuming leadership of the UNSMIL with the aim of ‘implementing Washington’s agenda at the expense of the Libyan people’.

Comment: The longstanding disagreements over the Libya file at the UN among the five permanent members of the UNSC further highlights the current impossibility during the era of Global Enduring Disorder of developing any truly consensual international solutions that could help even in a small way, in leading to an exit from the ongoing crisis in Libya. As the statements in response to Koury’s remarks showcase, too many players are manifestly vested in playing a disordering role rather than proposing their own alternative solutions.

Koury’s briefing was merely an uncontroversial narration of her first round of consultative fact-finding and opinion gathering meetings in Libya. She did not go out on a limb and provide her own take on solutions to the Libyan problem. Despite the completely uncontroversial nature of her remarks, they elicited denunciations from Russia, various Libyan political factions, and African nations – all of whom preferred ad hominem attacks against Koury and did not offer alternative workable solutions to those proposed by UNSMIL.

On paper, Stephanie Koury should be an ideal candidate for the role of acting UNSR. The American of Lebanese-Christian ancestry joined UNSMIL as a Deputy Special Representative for Political Affairs on 1 March 2024, replacing the highly ineffectual Raisedon Zenenga of Zimbabwe. Stephanie had previously served over 15 years with the United Nations in Iraq, Lebanon, Libya (2011-13), Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Her most recent assignment was Director of Political Affairs in the United Nations Transition Assistance Mission in the Sudan (UNITAMS). She holds a Doctorate in Law and has conducted research at SOAS in London. Drawing on her legal background, she has worked for the peacenik NGO Search for Common Ground and has been an advisor to the Palestinian delegation negotiating with Israel on settlements and roads policy. After UNSR Abdoulaye Bathily resigned, Koury assumed the role of officer-in-charge of UNSMIL and Acting UNSR on 16 May 2024.

In short, Koury brings all of the relevant skills and international perspectives which could possibly be hoped for to the acting UNSR position. She is a product of the UN system and knows how to balance the core equities of the member states. She has worked in Libya’s East and South during her time with UNSMIL back in 2011-2013 and brings vast experience working on mediation efforts in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq. And unsurprisingly, before she has even settled into the role, she is being lambasted and attacked from multiple sides who prefer to see a disordered and ineffectual international approach to Libya so that the current chaos may persist.

Significance: Koury’s briefing, which did not bring any significant news, was not very well received in Libya or in non-Western capitals. The denunciations she has received are relatively greater than those levelled against Stephanie Williams, when she began the role as Acting UNSR. This is because the international situation is relatively more fractured today than previously and Russia and other disordering powers in the Global South and elsewhere have core equities in preventing her from making any progress. Hence, it will be very difficult for her to launch any major new political initiative, if she has the intention to do so. Due to years of an anti-Western propaganda campaign which resonates with various tropes of Qadhafian ideology, many Libyans still blame ‘international interference’ and ‘the failure of UNSMIL’ for the totality of the situation in the country. However, while UNSMIL should take its share of the blame for current situation in Libya, it is crucial to point out that at present international influence in Libya is quite limited. Only Turkey, the UAE, and Egypt retain core equities with senior military, political, and economic officials.

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Renewed fighting in Zawiya and opening of Ras Jadir Delayed

In the early evening of 20 June, the car of Muhammad Masoud Hammad, a former judge at the Zawiya Court of Appeals, parked in front of his house, was shot at with an RPG. The vehicle burned out, but Hammad was not in it. A couple of hours later fighting broke out in the al-Rukaina area (NE of the Refinery Bridge) between the 103rd Brigade (“al-Kabwat” also known as the “al-Sila'a” Brigade), allied with Mohamed al-Baroun, aka al-Far, and the local Riyadh Belhaj militia.  The immediate trigger for the fighting was an assassination attempt on the brother of Riyah Belhaj, Abdul Rahman Belhaj, who survived the attempt but was seriously wounded.  On 21 June, Nasser Ammar, previously the commander of the Support Force of Operation Burkan al-Ghadab, strongly condemned the attack on the former judge at the Zawiya Court of Appeal and also mentioned the name of the assassin.

The opening of the Ras Ajdir border crossing, which was initially slated to take place on the  morning of June 23, then was pushed to the 24th was postponed again. Amazigh armed groups from Zuwara blocked the road preventing GNU MoI officials from being able to effectuate the opening. In Tunisia, it was announced that the opening was postponed due to internal disagreement on the Libyan side.

In response to these developments, Dabaiba received a delegation of the Zuwwaran Municipal Council and the Notable & Elder council of Zuwwarah on the evening of 24 June and offered them various appeasements in exchange for allowing the border to be opened.….. 

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SLB announces new contract in Libya despite ongoing backpayments; GECOL discusses energy supply to Benghazi and South Refinery project

On 19 June, it was reported in a range of international media outlets that ARCANO Oil Services, a nominally independent Libyan oil field service company that conducts outsourced projects connected to subsidiaries of the NOC, had signed an agreement with the American oil field services juggernaut Schlumberger (SLB) – despite the ongoing backpayment issue that SLB has been facing. (Libya-Analysis has previously reported that on 9 June, SLB announced the suspension of its oilfield service operations in the Libyan oil fields, starting from 1 July 2024 until the total debts owed to its 13 companies in Libya are settled.

Our informed local sources gave differing interpretations of the seeming contradiction in SLB’s recent actions and statements. Some argued that the ARCANO-SLB agreement has been hastily invented and rapidly signed to create a new source of funding to keep SLB committed to all of its outstanding work in Libya.  Others suggested……

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From our Blog..

On 19 June, Al Jazeera published a report by Simon Speakman Cordall titled ‘Smuggler paradise on Tunisia-Libya border hurts as closure strangles trade’. The report looks at how...read more

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Renewed fighting in Zawiya and opening of Ras Jadir Delayed