Othman Abdul-Jalil, Libya’s new health minister, has accused outgoing prime minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh of being responsible for recent threats and attacks against members of Prime Minister Fathi Bashagha’s cabinet.
In a recorded speech released today after he was sworn in as minister, Abdul-Jalil stressed that such threats “will not discourage the new government from moving forward in assuming its duties”.
Abdul-Jalil’s remarks came two days after Hafed Gaddur, who serves as foreign minister in Bashagha’s cabinet, was kidnapped, and later released, by a militia in Tripoli together with two other members of the new cabinet.
Echoing Abdul-Jalil’s allegation in a statement to Italian news agency Ansa, Gaddur also accused Dbeibeh of ordering the kidnapping.