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Libya’s PM Zeidan to reshuffle cabinet

Arab World Materials 8 January 2014 17:26 (UTC +04:00)
Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zeidan on Wednesday announced his readiness to resign from his post
Libya’s PM Zeidan to reshuffle cabinet

Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zeidan on Wednesday announced his readiness to resign from his post, sources told Al Arabiya News Channel.

Zaeidan added that he would reshuffle his cabinet this week or next as he faces a potential no-confidence vote from opponents in the country's parliament.

Zeidan's government is struggling with militias and former rebels who spearheaded the uprising that ousted Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, protests from rival political and ethnic groups and a seizure of oil terminals by pro-autonomy factions.

"The cabinet will be appointed, not based on parties and political groups, but will be formed with technocrats and independent experts," Zeidan said, flanked by his cabinet who were giving accounts of their ministry's performances, according to Reuters.

The government's major immediate challenge is tackling a group of armed protesters who for six months have controlled important oil terminals in the east, cutting off crude exports and the vital state revenues they generate.

Zeidan threatened on Wednesday to sink any ship trying to export oil outside government control.

Armed groups demanding autonomy for eastern Libya have invited foreign companies to buy oil from ports they have seized in defiance of the central government in Tripoli.

The development compounded the challenges facing Zeidan's weak central government as various armed factions demand political power and a bigger share of the vast North African country's oil wealth.

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