Vienna, Austria - Mohamed Aoun, Libyan Minister of Oil and Gas, has said that Libya is continuing its gas export operations to Europe through the Greenstream pipeline, local media reports said. He noted that an increase in gas exports is currently unfeasible, but could be considered in the future, after...

Crude is the main revenue source for Libya, which has been torn by more than a decade of stop-start conflict, involving foreign powers and a myriad of militias, since a NATO-backed revolt toppled strongman Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

The UN's International Organization for Migration estimates that 1,724 migrants had disappeared trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year, up from 1,417 last year. According to the Italian interior ministry, around 90,000 migrants have arrived by sea so far this year.

Libya's internal turmoil may worsen with the head of the country's east-based administration threatening to block oil and gas exports from territory under its control. Oussama Hamad blamed the UN-recognized government in Tripoli for wasting energy revenues. He warned that the government is ready to take more steps, including an...

Last week, both sides agreed on the legal steps to hold the elections following talks in Morocco, but stopped short of signing a deal, suggesting that some differences remain. Among the contested points are the candidacy of dual nationals and soldiers.

War-torn Libya is regularly criticised for its handling of migrants, with rights groups alleging horrific treatment by smuggling gangs and inside state-run detention centres. Libya is a key launchpad for migrants who are often fleeing conflict and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. They seek to reach Italian shores just 290 kilometres...

The UN-recognized Government of National Unity said the strikes hit "hideouts used by gangs of smugglers in fuel, narcotics and humans" and that they were ordered by interim PM Abdulhamid Dbeibah. But the country's parliament accused the Tripoli-based government of targeting the home of one of its lawmakers Ali Bouzribah,...

The discord in one of the two rival governments, based in the east and backed by Khalifa Haftar, where the parliament last week suspended its former premier Fathi Bashagha, may spur reconciliation.

He stresses on resolving the Palestinian issue, expressing concerns over escalating Israeli attacks and calling for a collective response to establish an independent Palestinian state. Taha also expresses the OIC's commitment to peace and stability in Yemen, Libya, and Syria, and urged increased solidarity with Somalia.

Parliament also announced an investigation into Bashagha. The chamber, backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar, had picked Bashagha in February last year to lead a government to replace that of Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, who sits in Tripoli.

The "Friends of the Tree" group works to raise awareness about green areas around Tripoli that are quickly disappearing because of drought, human activity and desertification. "Man has destroyed forests" and much of the vegetation, said the group's leader Khalifa Ramadan, who has been working in agriculture and gardening for...

TRIPOLI, LIBYA - Libyan authorities have imposed "severe restrictions" on local and international civil society groups, obstructing their work in the war-scarred country, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday. "Libya's Government of National Unity (GNU) and other authorities are cracking down on non-governmental domestic and foreign organizations," the New York-based rights...

Tripoli, Libya -- Libyan security forces said Thursday they had arrested a second US citizen for alleged Christian proselytizing in the North African Muslim nation. The arrest came a day after another US citizen, who was also teaching at the same private language school in the capital Tripoli, was detained...

The UN rights chief called for Libyan authorities and the international community to step up accountability efforts in the conflict-ravaged country, as a probe into war crimes wrapped up. "Libyan authorities, armed groups, smugglers and human traffickers should not assume that the eyes of the international community have now left...

In a crackdown on organized crime, Algeria has dismantled an international network specializing in trafficking people through Algeria to Europe, according to local media reports. The agency tasked with fighting crime arrested nine Syrians and six Algerians suspected of belonging to the group which trafficked Syrians and Lebanese.

The love for espresso is the relic of the Italian colonial rule in Libya. Tripoli is dotted with cafes, all equipped with sophisticated Italian coffee machines.

Boxing and other combat sports were banned by Moamer Kadhafi. Officially, authorities considered boxing too violent.

Libya has seen more than a decade of stop-start conflict since a 2011 NATO-backed revolt toppled strongman Moamer Kadhafi, with myriad rival militias, foreign powers and multiple governments vying for influence. The country remains split between a supposedly interim government in the western capital, Tripoli, and another in the east...

Italy's coastguard said the boat in distress was in Libya's search-and-rescue zone, and that the deadly episode laid bare "the inactivity" of other countries in the Mediterranean. The latest disaster in the Mediterranean comes exactly two weeks after a shipwreck off Italy's southern coast of Calabria that killed at least...

TRIPOLI, LIBYA - UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily called on rival administrations in conflict-torn Libya Saturday to agree terms for elections "by mid-June", pushing for the long-delayed ballot to be held by year end. The Senegalese diplomat told the UN Security Council last month he had a new initiative to break a...

The pushback was "predictable", said Khaled al-Montasser, a professor of international relations at the University of Tripoli, as elections would see members of both chambers potentially lose their seats and privileges. Despite the rivalry between them, both view the UN initiative as "interference in their sovereign decision-making power and an...

The form and rules around elections have been key sticking points in Libya's faltering peace process since the last major round of fighting in the North African country, torn apart by a decade of war. The envoy, Senegalese diplomat Abdoulaye Bathily, had on Monday told the United Nations Security Council...

Elections were originally scheduled for December 2021, but were postponed indefinitely because of differences over controversial candidates and rules on participation. Since March last year, an administration in Libya's east backed by military leader Khalifa Haftar has challenged the UN-recognized government of Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, arguing it has outlived...

Cairo, Egypt-- Senior Libyan officials from both rival administrations on Wednesday endorsed a coordination mechanism to clear the war-torn country of foreign troops and mercenaries, the United Nations announced. The UN mission in the North African country hailed "an important step toward achieving sustainable stability and peace in Libya" after a...

The agreement was signed in the presence of Meloni and her host Abdulhamid Dbeibah, who heads the UN-brokered Government of National Unity which is contested by a rival administration in the east.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni arrived in the Libyan capital Tripoli for talks on energy and migration, Libyan state media said. Meloni's trip - her second to a North African country this week - is the first by a European leader to war-battered Libya since her predecessor Mario Draghi's visit...

The snub underlines Arab divisions over the Tripoli-based government, whose legitimacy is contested by a rival administration in the war-torn country's east. Regional heavyweights Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were not represented at all at the gathering -- a preparatory session ahead of a foreign ministers' meeting in...

Tripoli, Libya--Libya's unity government has carried out a prisoner exchange with rival eastern forces, releasing a pilot captured during strongman Khalifa Haftar's 2019 assault on Tripoli, local media reported Monday. According to the reports and images on social media, pilot Amer al-Orfi al-Gajam was exchanged for 15 prisoners held by Haftar's...

Tripoli, Libya-- A Libyan court on Monday sentenced 17 people to death after finding them guilty of joining the Islamic State group and carrying out atrocities in its name, the prosecution said. The Tripoli court also sentenced two people to life in prison and 14 others to lesser jail sentences,...

Dbeibah has come under heavy criticism from political opponents and rights activists since the extradition. Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, 71, who allegedly worked as an intelligence agent for the regime of former Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi, appeared in a US court on Monday to face charges for the terror attack...

TRIPOLI, LIBYA - Libya's state energy firm urged its foreign oil and gas partners to resume exploration and production Tuesday assuring them security had begun to improve dramatically after clashes earlier this year. Rival administrations in east and west have vied for power since March, in a standoff that has...

Tunis, Tunisia—The speaker of Tunisia's dissolved parliament appeared on Monday before a judge investigating accusations his party helped Tunisian jihadists travel to fight in Iraq and Syria. Rached Ghannouchi, an arch-rival of President Kais Saied and also head of the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, arrived in the morning at the anti-terror court...

The United Nations had previously handled the repatriation of refugees from Libya, but the deal between authorities in the west, east and south has enabled the Interior Ministry's agency tackling illegal migration to work in a unified way across the country.

Nearly ten years after their relations broke down, Egypt and Turkey are working to rebuild the ties as the Egyptian president shook hands with his Turkish counterpart in Qatar. The presidency in Cairo has termed it a new "beginning" in ties with Ankara.

Accusing the government of prime minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah of preventing it from meeting, Libya's High Council of State said armored vehicles from an armed group commanded by Dbeibah's administration surrounded a major hotel in Tripoli, preventing council members from entering.

At the launch in 2013, organizers of the Al-Hamada rally had envisioned an annual event, yet this year's episode is only the third to get beyond the starting line.

Tripoli, Libya— The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said Wednesday he had urged eastern Libyan military chief Khalifa Haftar to "prevent" crimes by his troops, as investigations into their actions continue. Karim Khan, the first ICC prosecutor to visit the war-torn country in a decade, arrived in Libya on Saturday. The...

Tripoli, Libya---Libya is aiming to nearly double its oil output to two million barrels per day by 2027, the head of its National Oil Company has said. "We're working on raising production to two million barrels per day in the next three to five years," Farhat Bengdara said in an...

Libya has signed two defense deals with Turkey, building on a 2019 agreement that had seen the latter claim large and potentially gas-rich areas of the eastern Mediterranean, angering Greece, France and the European Union. The deal was signed with Libya's Tripoli-based prime minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah.

Authorities also said they had detained 48 people, including six already wanted for allegedly "joining a gang in order to illegally cross borders". The interior ministry had announced the arrests of more than 1,300 suspected people traffickers, both Tunisian and of other nationalities, in recent days.

Tripoli, Libya—The United Nations' new Libya envoy, Abdoulaye Bathily, took up post in Tripoli Friday, vowing to work towards elections in the North African country, rocked by over a decade of conflict. "I arrived in Tripoli today to assume my functions as the special representative of the secretary general for Libya...

Accusing smugglers of being behind the "heinous killing" of 15 migrants near the Mediterranean coastal city of Sabratha, the United Nations mission in Libya said the bodies were found on a beach with most of them burned inside a charred boat. It called for a swift investigation to bring "all...

On Monday, Turkey said it had signed a memorandum of understanding on exploration for hydrocarbons in Libya's seas with the authorities in Tripoli. "This agreement threatens stability and security in the Mediterranean," Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said in Cairo, where he met his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry.

The question of rights to Libya's vast hydrocarbon resources has become more urgent this year as global energy prices have soared. Monday's deal builds on an agreement signed between Ankara and a previous Tripoli-based administration in 2019.

Turkey's foreign minister signed a deal in Libya's capital Monday allowing for oil and gas exploration in 'Libyan waters'.

Fighting late Sunday broke out between rival forces equipped with heavy weapons, with one group linked to the defense ministry and the other to the interior ministry, local media reported.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has welcomed the appointment by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of Abdoulaye Bathily as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya.

United Nations has warned of the outbreak of new phase of violence in Libya as the country faces delays in moving toward elections. Last week heavy gunfire and shelling broke out in many neighborhoods of Tripoli, leaving 32 people dead. The rival prime ministers of the country blamed each other...

Calm seemed to prevail over Tripoli for a second day Monday after the clashes -- the worst violence in the capital since a landmark 2020 ceasefire. The health ministry said 32 people were killed and 159 wounded, including an unspecified number of civilians, in the fighting that began overnight Friday...

The two rival administrations competing for control of Libya have exchanged blame for the flare-up in violence killing 23 people as fears mount that a political crisis could touch off a major new armed conflict. Small arms fire and explosions rocked several districts of the capital overnight and into Sunday.