The Libyan government has asked 40 foreign firms including French oil company, Total to renew their licenses or have their operations suspended. Experts say that the move is to pressurize Europe to stop an eastern military offensive against Tripoli. The foreign firms have three months to renew their licenses if they fail in that, their operations will be suspended. The move comes as the Tripoli-based government seeks support to fend off an assault by Khalifa Haftar’s Libya National Army (LNA) force, which has been trying for one month to take the capital. Some of the countries like the US has extended its support to Khalifa Haftar, who proclaimed his intention to topple the democratically elected government, which is supported by the United Nations.
Total is a major oil player in Libya, It pumps more than 1m barrels of oil a day and set a target of achieving 2.1m barrels a day by 2023. Total is not the only the one which has been given the ultimatum to wind up the operations. The aerospace company Thales and the telecoms company Alcatel are also in the hit list since their foreign businesses’ licenses had expired. Fayez al-Sarraj, who heads the UN-backed, Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), which is the democratically elected government had wanted Macron to publically condemn Khalifa Haftar for his assault on Tripoli, which started a month ago and is continuing without any relent. Macron, on the other hand, only called for an unconditional ceasefire. This is purported to have benefited Haftar’s aggression and his international backers.
