Western Libya security overhaul clears path for political process

TUNIS – Libya’s Deputy Defence Minister Lieutenant General Abdel Salam al-Zoubi, has announced new measures to reorganise armed formations in the country’s west and remove their personnel and military equipment from cities, following a recent escalation that included unidentified drone attacks on towns including Zawiya.

The Defence Ministry said Zoubi had held a series of meetings with military officials in western Libya to agree on a plan to reorganise armed formations and move their members away from cities and residential areas.

The plan also calls for identifying locations where live ammunition and military equipment are stored, with the aim of relocating them to areas outside urban centres and reducing the risk of clashes, accidents or loss of control over weapons.

The measures come days after Zoubi met Saddam Haftar, deputy commander of the Libyan army, as well as US, Egyptian and Turkish delegations, for discussions on efforts to unify Libya’s divided military institutions.

The move comes at a critical point in international efforts to break Libya’s prolonged political deadlock, with Washington pushing a broader initiative aimed at unifying state institutions and creating conditions for presidential and parliamentary elections.

Libyan political analyst Ibrahim Eswaity told The Middle East Online Zoubi’s move was particularly significant given US efforts to advance an initiative put forward by US presidential adviser for Arab and African affairs Massad Boulos.

He said the initiative could not succeed without removing the threat of renewed violence from western Libya, adding that al-Zoubi was working towards that objective with substantial local, regional and international backing.

Eswaity said Zoubi’s meetings with Egyptian and US officials formed part of a wider process aimed at unifying Libya’s military establishment and preparing the ground for an executive authority capable of leading the country towards elections.

Libya has been caught in political deadlock since nationwide elections scheduled for December 2021 collapsed amid disputes over the legal framework and rival claims to political legitimacy. The country remains divided between competing institutions and armed networks, despite repeated international efforts to broker a political settlement.

Security remains one of the most difficult obstacles to any such agreement. Armed groups with varying degrees of affiliation to state institutions retain substantial influence across western Libya, while many fighters have resisted integration into a unified national military.

Zoubi, who has emerged as one of the more prominent figures in Libya’s security landscape in recent years, was appointed deputy defence minister in 2024. He inherited a fragmented security environment in western Libya in which powerful armed formations operate alongside official institutions.

The latest plan seeks to tackle one of the most sensitive aspects of that landscape by physically separating armed groups and weapons from densely populated areas.

The unidentified drone attacks that recently struck areas including Zawiya have added urgency to those efforts, highlighting the vulnerability of cities where military facilities, weapons depots and armed formations are often located close to civilian neighbourhoods.

Libyan political analyst Mohamed Saleh al-Obeidi said the fragile security situation remained the main obstacle to implementing any political agreement in the country.

He said moves by figures such as Zoubi and Haftar to address the security problem should be viewed as a positive and potentially significant development on which further efforts could be built.

Obeidi said Zoubi’s extensive military career gave him the experience needed to begin comprehensive reforms in western Libya, but warned that the task remained highly sensitive because of the military and political balances involved.

The main challenge, he said, would be finding a compromise acceptable to the armed formations themselves.

Zoubi has built much of his career within western Libya’s security structures. He founded the 301 Battalion in 2015 and was appointed commander of the 111 Brigade in 2022 before becoming deputy defence minister.

His efforts now coincide with a broader push to restructure Libya’s divided security institutions and create a unified military establishment.

The meetings with Egyptian, US and Turkish officials, together with his recent discussions with Haftar, point to an effort to build common ground between Libya’s rival military camps, which have remained divided since the country’s post-2011 conflict.

US diplomatic engagement has intensified as Washington seeks to support a political process capable of ending the institutional split and preparing Libya for elections. Boulos has recently outlined an initiative focused on unifying state institutions and public spending while creating the conditions for presidential and parliamentary elections.

The initiative places security at the centre of the political process. Without greater control over armed groups, weapons and military infrastructure, efforts to establish a unified executive authority and hold credible elections face the risk of being undermined by renewed violence.

The challenge for Zoubi is therefore not simply to move armed formations outside cities but to persuade groups that have accumulated political, military and economic influence over years of conflict to accept a new security order.

The outcome could have wider implications for Libya’s political transition. If the western security landscape can be stabilised and armed formations brought under a more coherent structure, it could strengthen efforts to reunify state institutions and create the conditions for long-delayed elections.

But any attempt to reorganise the armed groups also carries risks, particularly if powerful formations perceive the measures as a threat to their interests.