Never a dull moment in Libya. As the security situation is deteriorating, it appears the Political Isolation Law is not really being implemented and that Ali Zidan is not paying the price for abandoning his promises of a full cabinet reshuffle. That said, the formation of an emergency cabinet as reported by Libya Herald is probably good news, if they can get their act together and begin taking tough decisions and trying to get in control of the country and kick start the constitutional process.
Faced with the continuing security crisis, the Prime Minister, Ali Zeidan, has taken the step of temporarily replacing the full cabinet with an emergency streamlined one. The move – in effect creating an inner cabinet – was formally announced last night following consultations with the President of Congress, Nuri Abu Sahmain.It had been expected. Last Wednesday, Zeidan announced that, contrary to previous reports, he would not reshuffle the government but instead create an inner cabinet to deal with the current situation. The move was precipitated by the spate of assassinations across Libya, notably in Benghazi where the prominent political activist Abdulsalam Musmari was murdered but also elsewhere, such as that of the commander of the Libya Shield battalion in Derna, Colonel Adnan Nuwaisiri. There have been even more attempted assassinations and attacks on security institutions.