Tripoli, November 23, 2011 (SPS) - Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) has appointed as new Defence Minister the local commander whose forces captured Muammar Gaddafi's son at the weekend.
Osama Al-Juwali, head of the military council in Zintan, was given the defence job as part of a cabinet line-up in which secularist liberals were dominant and which had no key roles for the Islamists who have been making a bid for power since Gaddafi's fall.
Three months after an armed revolt ended Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule over the oil producing country, Libya's new rulers are dealing with the tricky task of balancing rival regional factions and ideological camps who are jockeying for influence.
The new government line-up, which will run the country until elections are held, was agreed at an NTC meeting late on Monday.
In other appointments, Libya's deputy envoy to the United Nations was named as Foreign Minister, an oil company executive was made Oil Minister and the Finance Minister in the outgoing government was re-appointed.
Juwali is a former officer in the Libyan military whose forces from Zintan played a crucial role in the offensive on Tripoli which ended Gaddafi's rule in August. The NTC had agreed to appoint Ibrahim Dabbashi, the deputy UN envoy, as Foreign Minister. He came to prominence soon after Libya's revolt erupted in February, when he broke with Gaddafi and sided with the rebellion.
Ali Tarhouni, an academic in the United States who returned from exile to run the Oil and Finance portfolio in the anti-Gaddafi rebellion, was made Finance Minister, while Hassan Ziglam, an executive in a Libyan oil company, was given the Oil Minister's portfolio. The NTC is expected to announce the cabinet line-up officially later today.
Speaking on Monday, Prime Minister-designate Abdurrahim El-Keib said he would pick the best people to steer the country towards democracy rather than those with the most political clout. (SPS)
Source: SABC
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