Libya government: Haftar’s moves to control oil revenues ‘illegal’

The internationally-recognised Libyan government has described measures taken by renegade army commander Khalifa Haftar to control oil exports in the country as “illegal”, AFP reported yesterday.

Haftar had announced on Monday the handover of oil installations under the control of his forces to his allies in the east Libya administration after retaking them from militias.

However The government in Tripoli called for the UN Security Council to stop any “illegal” sale of oil, stressing in a statement that “this is a response to the announcement of the illegal parties which decided to hand over the oil ports to an illegal and unrecognised body.”

According to the statement, “this is an aggression on the powers of the national petroleum body” run by the Libyan government in Tripoli.

Read: US strongly condemns attacks on Libyan oil ports

Since the overthrow of the longtime Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in a popular uprising in 2011, Libya has been involved in a power struggle which has led to security chaos. There are currently three governments in the country with Brigadier General Khalifa Haftar heading one in Benghazi, the UN-backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli headed by Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj, and the Tobruk-based government of Abdullah Al-Thinni.