Libya gets new central bank chief under UN-backed deal

Libya's eastern parliament agreed on Monday to approve Naji Mohamed Issa Belqasem's nomination as central bank governor. This move could help end a crisis that has slashed the country's oil output.

The House of Representatives (HoR) also approved Mari Muftah Rahil Barrasi as his deputy in a televised session.

The approvals could remove the main political obstacle to solving a crisis over control of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) and oil revenues that has sharply reduced Libya's oil production and exports.

Belqasem was previously the central bank's banking and monetary control director, while Barrasi was appointed governor deputy in 2023. The two men were nominated in recent UN-facilitated talks.

The second deputy speaker, Musbah Doma, said the session's 108 attendees voted unanimously by raising their hands after Doma read out the names of the two nominees.

"The board of directors (of the Central Bank) will be formed within ten days," Doma added.

The crisis began when the head of the Tripoli-based Presidential Council, Mohamed al-Menfi, moved in August to replace veteran central bank Governor Sadiq al-Kabir, which led eastern factions to order a halt of oil flows across Libyan oilfields in protest.

Nearly all of Libya's oilfields are in the east, which is under the control of military commander Khalifa Haftar, who leads the Libyan National Army.

Libya's National Oil Corporation said on 18 August that oil production had dropped by more than half of typical levels. It has not made public any new production figures since then.

Libya's oil output has been disrupted repeatedly in the chaotic decade since the country divided in 2014 between two administrations in its east and west following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

According to an agreement signed on Thursday by delegates of legislative bodies at the headquarters of the United Nations mission in Libya (UNSMIL), the governor and his deputy would be approved within one week and the board of directors within ten days from approving the governor.

The legislative bodies are the HoR in Benghazi and High State Council (HSC) in Tripoli.

The leadership of the HSC has been contested since 6 August, when an election among its members came down to a single vote between former head Khaled al-Meshri and his successor Mohammed Takala, who took office a year ago.

However, Takala and Meshri said they had informed UNSMIL acting head Stephanie Koury of their approval of the two nominees.

"The Central Bank crisis was created by the Presidential Council and wisely addressed by the House of Representatives and the State Council, taking into account the interest of nation and citizen," HoR speaker Aguila Saleh said.

(Reuters)