Saudi-owned pan-Arab media is reporting that the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood has withdrawn its five ministers from the government of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan. According to an Al Arabiya report:
Justice & Construction Party
21 January 2014 Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood Justice and Construction Party, the second largest force in parliament, withdraw on Tuesday its five ministers from Prime Minister Ali Zeidan’s government, including the oil minister.
Resignations by the JCP, which repeatedly failed to secure a vote of no-confidence against Zeidan, complicate efforts to overcome deadlock in the General National Congress (GNC) and stabilize Libya two years after the fall of Muammar Qaddafi.
‘Zeidan failed in his duty to provide security, and to deliver in the electricity and oil sectors,’ Nizar Kawan, a leading JCP member, said in a statement. ‘We had asked for a withdrawal of confidence, but some don’t understand the danger of the stage we are at now.’
The party has five ministers in Libya’s interim administration — those for oil, electricity, housing, economy and sport.
After three weeks of heated debate, the Islamists and their allies failed to secure the 120 votes they needed to censure the prime minister, whose security failings they say were highlighted by his own brief abduction by militia last year.
Islamists were predominant among 99 MPs who signed a petition of protest earlier in the day, accusing Zeidan of a ‘crushing failure’ in efforts to restore security two and a half years after the overthrow of veteran dictator Qaddafi.
The GMBDW reported in July 2013 that protestors had attacked the offices of the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood yesterday following demonstrations over the assassination of a prominent critic of the Brotherhood.
In June 2013, Libyan lawmakers elected a Parliament chief strongly supported by the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, the Justice and Construction Party.
In July 2012, the Libyan Brotherhood suffered what appeared to be a major loss when they finished a distant second place in national elections.
In 2011, the New York Times reported on what they called the “growing influence of Islamists in Libya”, identifying Qatari Muslim Brotherhood figure Ali Sallabi (aka Ali Salabi), already known to be the Revolution’s “spiritual leader and a close associate of Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi, as well as for the first time Abel al-Rajazk Abu Hajar who was said to lead the Tripoli Municipal Governing Council and is described as a “Muslim Brotherhood figure.” Our predecessor publication had reported on Ali Sallabi and his association with Qaradawi.
For analysis and background on the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood, go here and here.
