Page 11 - ARUBA TODAY

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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 21 January 2020
Libyan oil fields

remain shut, testing

peace summit

By RAMI MUSA and ISABEL But on the ground, tensions
DEBRE remained high. As world
Associated Press leaders convened about
BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — military de-escalation,
Libya's major oil fields and observers said scattered
production facilities re- clashes erupted outside
mained closed on Mon- Tripoli, testing a tenuous
day, its national oil com- week-old cease-fire.
pany said, in a sign that the Former general Khalifa Hift-
country's east-based forces er's east-based forces have
are not backing down after been laying siege to the
an international summit to capital for months.
end the Libyan civil war. "People are holding their
The Libyan National Oil breath," said Mohamed El-
Corporation confirmed it jarh, a political analyst who In this Feb. 26, 2011 file photo, a Libyan oil worker, works at a refinery inside the Brega oil complex,
had invoked force majeure is based in the eastern city in Brega, eastern Libya.
on oil exports from two key of Tobruk. Associated Press
southern fields, a clause "I am worried there is no
that allows for a failure to appetite among the war- Aid workers in the capital's Hifter's tribal allies closed tions against Hifter's forces.
fulfill international contracts ring parties and their con- southern suburbs said they a major pipeline over the The shut-down of produc-
due to a sudden disruptive stituencies for a truce right had not been able to re- weekend, stopping about tion in the south follows
event. now," Eljarh added. cover corpses for several 380,000 barrels per day of the weekend closure of all
The continued closure of A doctor and resident of days because of contin- production and potentially eastern export terminals.
virtually all of Libya's oil fa- southern Tripoli, Mohamed ued fighting. cutting national output to Only offshore fields and
cilities by eastern Libyan Malek, 27, said he fled his "We found six corpses stuck a small fraction of its nor- one smaller facility remain
forces ratchets up pressure neighborhood late Sunday under rubble but there was mal level. "This sit-in will con- operational, the national
on their adversaries in the when he heard sporadic intense shooting and we tinue," vowed Mohamed oil company said.
west, the U.N.-backed gov- exchanges of gunfire. couldn't reach them until Maikal, the leader of the Oil, the lifeline of Libya's
ernment that controls the Another Tripoli resident, today," said Assad Jaafar, group that seized the fields, economy, has long been
capital, Tripoli. Ahmed Werfali, 34, said a spokesman for Libya's known as Fezzan. "There is a key factor in the civil war,
World powers with interests he heard a loud explosion Red Crescent. a pessimistic situation after as rival authorities jostle
in Libya's long-running con- early Monday, and limited Dozens of men from tribal what happened in Berlin." for control of oil fields and
flict pledged on Sunday to fighting overnight. But the groups loyal to Hifter con- The protesters accuse the state revenue. Libya has
respect a much-violated violence was far less than tinued on Monday to camp Tripoli-based government, the ninth largest known oil
arms embargo and push the routine pounding of out in the two southern oil which controls Libya's Cen- reserves in the world and
opposing factions to reach heavy weaponry before fields, al-Sharara, Libya's tral Bank, of using oil reve- the biggest oil reserves in
a truce. the cease-fire, he said. largest, and al-Feel. nues to fund military opera- Africa. q

Israel building underground

defense system on Lebanon border

JERUSALEM (AP) — Isra- a stalemate in a month- ing it. It is a matter of pre-
el's military said it began long war in 2006. Hezbollah caution."
construction of an under- is closely allied with Iran, Is- Israel recently warned that
ground defense system rael's greatest regional foe, Hezbollah had beefed up
Sunday along its northern and has vowed to retaliate its presence along the vol-
frontier with Lebanon to for America's killing of a top atile frontier.
protect against cross-bor- Iranian general in a drone Israel and Hezbollah's 2006
der tunnels. strike earlier this month. war ended in a U.N.-bro-
The infrastructure project Conricus said the construc- kered cease-fire. While di-
will identify underground tion would all be on the Is- rect fighting has been rare Sept. 2, 2019, file photo, Spanish UN peacekeepers patrol along
the Lebanese-Israeli border, with the Israeli village of Metulla,
acoustic and seismic ac- raeli side of the border and since then, there has been background, in the village of Kfar Kila, Lebanon.
tivity indicating tunnel dig- that United Nations peace- occasional violence. The Associated Press
ging, accompanied other keepers along the frontier most recent flare-up was
defensive measures, said had been notified. in September, when Hez- Syria, many of them be- civil war. Israel believes the
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, "What we are doing today bollah fired a barrage of lieved to have been aimed group has an arsenal of
a military spokesman. is part of a larger plan," he anti-tank missiles into Israel at Iranian weapons ship- some 130,000 missiles and
Israel destroyed a series of said. "We understand that and Israel responded with ments bound for its Hezbol- rockets capable of striking
what it said were attack our activity may be seen artillery fire. There were no lah proxy. Hezbollah has a virtually anywhere in Israel.
tunnels last year, dug under and will be heard on the casualties on either side. battle-tested army that has More recently, it has ac-
the border by the Lebanese other side and we want to Israel also has acknowl- been fighting alongside cused the group of trying
militant group Hezbollah. explain what we are we edged carrying out scores the forces of Syrian Presi- to import or develop guid-
The group battled Israel to doing and why we are do- of airstrikes in neighboring dent Bashar Assad in Syria's ed missiles.q