Will Next PM 'Make Libya Great Again?'

While nothing is final, signs are ominous that the government of Libya's embattled prime minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, will be out of power next month — at the very latest, Libyan sources told Newsmax.

Although Dbeibah's demise is by no means a certainty — and choosing a prime minister is a complicated process involving both support from the Libyan parliament and the blessings of the United Nations — the man increasingly mentioned for the position was in Washington last week. 

Abdelkarim Mgeg, a nuclear scientist well known internationally for overseeing the dismantling of Moammar Gadhafi's nuclear arsenal, met with members of the House and Senate Foreign Relations committees and spoke of his plan to lead the government and, in his words, "make Libya great again."

Since the bloody toppling of the eccentric strongman Gadhafi in 2011, the nation that is the fourth-largest in Africa and the seventh-largest member of OPEC in terms of oil reserves has never been able to get a firm grip on its own governance.

Libya, in fact, is divided much like the United States was during the Civil War from 1861-65: Dbeibah's government in Tripoli, which is recognized by the United Nations and much of the West, and an insurgent government in the western party of Libya (Benghazi) headed by self-proclaimed Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, Gadhafi's onetime army chief of staff and now head of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces militia.

The schism between the "two Libyas" is enhanced by illegal "fuel swapping" — that is, both sides profiting from swapping crude oil for refined fuels, rather than paying for them in cash.

According to the Financial Times, the fuel "is smuggled abroad to be 'sold at black market rates or at market rates with fake documentation.' The scheme produces a 'steady steam of revenue' for armed groups linked to the country's rival factions."

After five prime ministers in a decade, Dbeibah was chosen for the position in 2021 and promised to hold free elections for president and a parliament. That has yet to be done, leading to a loss of support for the prime minister in and out of Libya and calls for his replacement. 

Aguila Saleh Issa, speaker of the Libyan parliament for a decade, recently charged that Dbeibah's government "lacks legitimacy that the government takes for conducting presidential and parliamentary elections" and the elected representatives have "withdrawn confidence" from the prime minister. 

Dbeibah has also reportedly lost support at the United Nations, which has had a strong hand in the development of post-Gadhafi Libya.

Enter nuclear scientist Mgeg, who spoke to Newsmax between appointments in Washington. 

The first item on the agenda of a "Prime Minister Mgeg," he told us, would be to bring the insurgent Haftar into a united Libya. 

"Haftar believes in uniting Libya," he told Newsmax, insisting that the field marshal's attempts to overthrow the government in Libya by force in 2019 would not be a "deal-breaker."

"He had a lot of conflicts with others, but in his heart is his desire to rebuild Libya. For me now, it is very important to gather everybody together so we can be united and reach our ambitions."

A reform of Libya's oil-smuggling practices will only be realized, he added, "when Haftar and the government in Tripoli are working together."

One pivotal part of Mgeg's reform agenda as prime minister would be "to build a strong channel between Libya and the United States in the economic aspects and in the strategical projects such as energy and security."

Mgeg is also eager to work with President Donald Trump, who, he says, "has the ideal personality for Libya. He is an astonishing man who did a lot as president before."

He believes Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is someone he can work with to resolve what he considers Italy's principle problem with Libya, which is, in Mgeg's words, "a massive number of immigrants from Libya at its ports."

Mgeg fully realizes that it is a complicated process for him to become prime minister if and when a vacancy in the job occurs. But he believes the U.N. as well as the U.S. and other countries that do business with Libya could "speed up the process."