Abeer Mahmoud: The silent conflict between Al-Dabaiba and Al-Kabir heralds the worst for Libya

Abeer Mahmoud
The economic scene in Libya began to change radically since the beginning of this February, with the dollar exchange rates in the parallel market continuing to rise remarkably despite attempts to contain it, which shed light on many important political issues that affected the Libyan economy and its inflation rates.
Where the silent conflict, which has reached the stage of arm-twisting, continues between the head of the outgoing National Unity Government, Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya, Al-Siddiq Al-Kabir, to negatively reflect on the general financial situation in the country, while the Libyan dinar recorded a renewed decline in the parallel market against the basket of foreign currencies, In exchange for the rise in the dollar exchange rate above the 7 dinars barrier.
Those interested in financial affairs in Libya fear that the country will pay the price for the ongoing conflict between Dabaiba and Al-Kabir, which has begun to raise widespread controversy in specialized Libyan circles, especially since the two men were cooperative to the utmost under the cover of joint alliances with Western parties and their overlapping interests in Libyan affairs.
Private sources indicated that the Prime Minister of the Unity Government was seeking to appoint one of his close associates as governor of the Central Bank and to remove Al-Siddiq Al-Kabir from the scene due to the latter’s legalization of the government’s spending operations, his pledge not to allow the disbursement of items outside the state budget, and his brief cooperation with the Libyan East camp.
The sources confirmed that Al-Siddiq Al-Kabir was recently threatened by influential people and armed groups, after the revelation of a financial deficit estimated at $11 billion in the government that was spent on these armed groups, which prompted Al-Dabaiba since the beginning of the year to mobilize the support of the leaders of these armed groups in his campaign against Governor of the Central Bank and co-opting other neutral leaders.
According to political analyst Ahmed Al-Warfalli, the issue of replacing Al-Kabeer as governor of the Central Bank is a “difficult” issue, so much so that the House of Representatives and the Supreme Council of State were unable to remove him from his position despite their attempts several times, but Al-Dabaiba’s tightening of the screws on Al-Kabeer indicates that he has received international support and blessings from the leaders of the armed groups. Dominating Tripoli to do so.
Al-Werfalli pointed out that the scene of Al-Kabir’s arrest by the Radaa group led by Abdul Raouf Kareh and his handover to the public prosecutor in preparation for the appointment of a new person to his position is the most likely scene, given Al-Dabaiba’s public courtship of armed groups and Al-Kabir’s record being full of corruption charges.
Al-Werfalli confirmed that Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba seeks to prolong his stay in power and eliminate his political rivals if the country approaches holding elections, and with his control over the Central Bank, he can maintain unlimited funding for his government and armed groups and disburse financial grants without oversight, accountability, or controls to stop inflation due to excessive spending. Exchange.
Al-Siddiq Al-Kabir has been exercising exclusive control over the Central Bank of Libya in Tripoli for years, during which oil revenues continued to accumulate in the Central Bank in Tripoli, a situation that made the process of setting the general budget impossible, and hindered the process of preparing for elections, making the governor of the bank a central player in all negotiations. Future vision regarding government spending, and immunized him against many corruption charges that pursued him throughout those years.
Syrian writer
Rai Today newspaper