Libya: Prime Minister Ousted in Chaos over Tanker

Mar 11, 2014 | David D. Kirkpatrick and Cliffort Kraussmarch, The New York Times
View Original

CAIRO — Libya’s transitional Parliament voted on Tuesday to remove its prime minister as his government conceded that despite days of bluster it was powerless to stop a tanker from sailing away with an illicit shipment of Libyan oil.

The ouster of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan underscored the explosive danger of loss of control over Libya’s petroleum, the lifeblood of its economy. With negligible military or police forces, oil revenue has been the last bargaining chip for the weak transitional government in its struggle to subdue the fractious local militia and tribes that took up arms during the rebellion that overthrew Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

The tanker escaped with the oil in defiance of military threats from Tripoli and legal warnings from Washington, and its voyage has evoked the lawlessness that prevailed on the same coast two centuries ago, when Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison sent the Marines and Navy to subdue the Barbary pirates.