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Benghazi - The prime minister of Libya's internationally-recognised government has decried a religious edict issued by clerics affiliated with a rival government that bans the Ibadi, a Muslim sect to which hundreds of thousands of Libya's Amazigh adhere.

Fayez Serraj warned of "endangering social safety" and said on Friday that such edicts, or fatwas, could create discord.

A week ago, a religious committee under the government based in eastern Libya targeted Ibadi followers, describing them as a "misguided and aberrant group."

The Human Rights Watch criticised the fatwa.

Eric Goldstein, HRW's deputy director for Mideast and North Africa, said "religious authorities in Libya should stop pandering to extremists by castigating minorities in incendiary language."

Amazigh advocates say there're around 400 000 Ibadi Muslims in Libya, which has a population of 6 million.

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Libyan PM decries edict by clerics loyal to rival govt - News24

A hotel can be seen behind the abandoned Dar Bishi synagogue in Tripoli, Libya, Sept. 28, 2011. (Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images)

(JTA) Gina Waldman was forced to flee her native Libya in 1967 as anti-Jewish mobs took to the streets of Tripoli, burning down her fathers warehouse.

Waldman, like thousands of other Libyan Jews who left the country amid public and state-sponsored anti-Semitism in the 20th century, was forced to leave behind both personal belongings she was only allowed to bring a single suitcase with her and a rich cultural heritage that testified to over 2,000 years of Jewish presence in the North African country. Today no Jews remain in Libya.

That heritage including synagogues, cemeteries and ritual objects has long been under threat. But now an additional obstacle is coming from an unlikely place, said Waldman, president and co-founder of the group Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, or JIMENA.

The threat stems from a memorandum of understanding request by the Libyan government currently under consideration by the State Department that would prohibit artifacts dated 1911 and earlier, including Jewish ritual objects, from being brought into the United States from Libya.

That would mean that anyone attempting to bring in antique Torah scrolls, tombstones, books and other ritual objects would be stopped at the U.S. border, and the objects would be confiscated and sent back to Libya.

Waldman, who lives in San Francisco, called the measure very, very offensive to the Jewish community. She said the memorandum would block people from removing Jewish artifacts when the very government itself has destroyed every single synagogue, every single [Jewish] cemetery.

Waldman said she is not aware of anyone having attempted to take Jewish artifacts out of Libya, or of any plans to do so. But she worries that the memorandum would affect any future efforts to recover those materials.

The State Departments Cultural Property Advisory Committee convened this week to discuss and consider the request, which Libya submitted in June. It has not announced a decision. The State Department, replying to a JTA request for comment, said it could not respond before deadline.

Libya claims that the request is necessary for curbing black market sales of artifacts from the country.

Libyas patrimony is now under severe and continuing threat of pillage due to ongoing conflict and the rise of violent extremist groups, according to a State Department summary of the request. (The original request is not available publicly.)

In addition to mentioning threats to Islamic and Berber materials, the summary specifically refers to Jewish sites being pillaged.

Many of the old Jewish cemeteries and sites are being looted for antiquities to export where there is an active transit or ultimate market for these objects, it says, later adding that some Jewish materials are sold in Israel.

Critics say the request is illegitimate and allows for Libya to claim ownership of various artifacts, including those that belong to its exiled Jewish community.

Kate Fitz Gibbon, a lawyer who served on theCultural Property Advisory Committeein 2002-03, spoke harshly of the memorandum.

I was terrifically offended at this idea that a Middle Eastern country that has forcibly expelled all of its Jewish population should have whatever is left, she told JTA. This is the opposite of Holocaust repatriation. This is telling the survivors that they should give whats left back to the oppressors.

Fitz Gibbon added that there was no proof in the State Department summary that Jewish artifacts were in fact being taken out of Libya.

On Wednesday, she spoke in opposition to the memorandum on behalf oftheAntique Tribal Art Dealers Association at a public open session organized by the State Department.

In addition to sharing objections on behalf of Jewish critics, Fitz Gibbon also said that Libya was not capable of properly preserving artifacts. The country, which has been in disarray following the 2011 fighting that toppled dictator Moammar Ghadafi, is currently under the rule of a provisional government and violent clashes continue to break out.

Libya, which has no museums they have 24 museums, they are all closed no tourism, has never done cultural exchange, and in this actual request said were not going to do any cultural exchange because we dont have the money or time of the ability, there is no question that Libya doesnt even meet one of these criteria for an MOU, Fitz Gibbon said.

Libyas request is not unprecedented. The U.S. has similar agreements with 17 countries, including one reached recently with Egypt. Congress also has passed emergency laws restricting artifacts from Iraq and Syria from entering the country. Such laws draw ona 1970 UNESCO convention thatallows for the placing of import and export restrictions in cases where a countrys patrimony is under threat of pillaging and its artifacts in danger of entering the black market.

A similar battle is playing out with an Iraqi Jewish archive uncovered by U.S. troops in 2003 in Baghdad. The artifacts were on tour in the U.S. in 2014 and were supposed to be returned to Iraq, but Jewish groups objected, saying they should bein the custody of the Iraqi Jewish community, which is living outside of the country after being driven out. The case of those artifacts remains unresolved.

Marc Lubin, a lawyerassisting Waldmans group, said efforts to keep Jewish artifacts in Libya or Iraq do not guarantee the preservation of the objects.

As was the case with the Iraqi Jewish artifacts, the Libyan MOU legitimizes Libyas confiscation of the property of fleeing Jews by recognizing the Libyan governments legal claim to that property, Lubin told JTA in an email. It gives a green light to future desecration by prohibiting the removal of sacred items from Libya for safe-keeping. It requires Libyan Jewrys heritage remain in place as a target for fanatics, all in the name of preservation.

Critics say Libyan-Jewish artifacts arent the only thing at stake.Granting the memorandum could set a precedent.

JIMENA is fighting this MOU because it sets a precedent to all of the Muslim, mostly Arab countries who have desecrated and impounded all of our antiquities, all of our heritage, Waldman said.

Fitz Gibbon echoed Waldmans concerns.

There was recently an MOU granted for Egypt, and the past pattern for MOUs has been that one nation, then two nations, then all nations within a specific region were covered, Fitz Gibbon said.

Waldman said that JIMENA is not concerned with the artifacts monetary value but rather with establishing the fact that the objects belong to the exiled Jewish community.

Theyve already taken private property, and now they are going after community property and our heritage, she said. It isnt money value that we are fighting for, but it is the right to know we are the rightful owners they are not.

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Why Jews from Libya are worried about the fate of the country's ... - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

"These are devices that are used by traffickers for their smuggling activities. So this decision we have taken on the European Union level will help (in) making their businesses and their lives a bit more complicated," Federica Mogherini, the EU's chief foreign policy official, said at a news conference Monday.

The EU said the restrictions will not prevent exports or sales when they are "meant for legitimate uses by the civilian population, for instance for fishermen, who may need motors for their boats."

Many fleeing Libya hope to escape the volatile situation and civil unrest that has rocked the country following the death of its ousted dictator, Moammar Gadhafi.

On the whole, the migrants come from across Africa and the Middle East, some fleeing violence and persecution and others looking for economic refuge.

Mogherini said the EU would continue to work with Libya to help the country out of its security crisis.

EU foreign ministers also agreed to renew the bloc's mission to assist Libyan authorities with border management, law enforcement and criminal justice, particularly along the country's southern borders.

"Libya has enough resources -- including human resources, economic resources and natural resources -- to find its own way out of this political crisis, which is the essential precondition to work on security issues and also on migration," she said.

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EU says it will limit inflatable boat exports to Libya to stop traffickers - CNN

In July, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the self-proclaimed leader of the Libyan National Army, one of the major armed groups in the battle for Libya, announcedthat his forces had liberated Benghazi from jihadist fighters. Although Benghazis emancipation was viewed by many as a welcome development, it does little to push back the massive tide of migrants using Libya as a transit country nor to prevent the numerous abuses perpetrated against them. Nearly 11,000 migrantsarrived on Italian shores in just the last five days of June, following nearly 80,000 in the first half of 2017.Over 2,000have perished at sea since the start of this year. The vast majority came from sub-Saharan Africa and embarked from the Libyan coast.

The European Union (EU) has been searching for a way to stem the flow of migrants and handle the tens of thousands who arrive in Italy on a daily basis. The EUs current policy approach aims to shut off the route through the central Mediterranean and strengthen Libyan coastal patrol and enforcement capacities at sea. But it is unlikely to be effective or humane, given the sheer volume of migrants and the number of groups that profit from trafficking them, not to mention theweakness of the Libyan navyand other official security structures.

Before 2011, former Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi shrewdly exploited his ability to use his country as a valve on migration, extracting hundreds of millions of dollars and other concessions (such as high-profile visits and increased trade and cooperation) from EU leaders in exchange for more stringent border enforcement by Libyan authorities. In fact, the recent agreement between the EU and the internationally-recognized Presidency Council of Libya revives a 2008 agreement between Libya and Italy that was designed to control illegal migration at that time. Nearly 11,000 migrants arrived on Italian shores in just the last five days of June.

That policy helped slow the movement of Africans to Europe by keeping potential migrants in Libya, where they were subjected to poor

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Europe's Libya Problem - Foreign Affairs

SHARARA OIL FIELD, Libya (Reuters) - When the head of Libya's state energy company visited Sharara oil field in early July, community leaders and workers crowded into a conference room to ask about jobs, training and services for local people.

When, they asked, would their villages start to see the benefit of the country's rising oil production?

"You've been very patient," Mustafa Sanalla reassured them, before adding: "You need to be patient a little longer."

Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) raised output to more than one million barrels per day (bpd) at the end of June for the first time since 2013, a feat that seemed near impossible after the chaos that followed the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The NOC did it by cajoling community leaders, shaming blockaders and navigating a bewildering range of tribal feuds as it reopened fields and patched up infrastructure.

But the comeback, crucial to Libya's survival, is fragile.

To keep it going, NOC chief Sanalla has to tour the country regularly, placating restive armed factions and local groups while at the same time tussling with the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli over budget and control over the oil sector.

Even if the NOC can continue to stop the port and field blockades that crippled Libya's production in recent years, its goal of pushing production to 1.25 million bpd later this year will be difficult to achieve.

Output is already wavering due to problems linked to long shutdowns and a lack of maintenance and investment.

Idled pipelines have corroded, thieves have stolen copper wiring at desert oil facilities. No new drilling has been done for three years and few foreign contractors have returned. Funds to replace and maintain infrastructure are badly needed.

"Unless we have the money, not only can we not increase production, we cannot sustain production," Sanalla told Reuters as he flew back from the visit to Sharara and another southwestern field called El Feel. "Until now we haven't received one penny."

Among the parties closely watching the situation is OPEC, which wants to bolster global oil prices. OPEC exempted members Libya and Nigeria from a deal to cut output that took effect in January, but the group is now considering if and when quickly rising production should be capped.

Sanalla will share his production plans at a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers in Russia on Saturday.

Libya has the biggest proven oil reserves in Africa. Before the uprising that killed Gaddafi, it was pumping around 1.6 million bpd, much of it light, sweet crude shipped to Europe.

From 2013, however, shutdowns and fighting linked to a messy conflict that spread across the country brought the sector to its knees.

Militia leaders closed ports and pipelines, militants set storage tanks ablaze. Some oil facilities were plundered. Blockades were set up by armed groups demanding salary payments or seeking to cut off a source of government revenues.

A government set up in the east of the country tried, and failed, to sell its own oil through a parallel national oil company in Benghazi.

The NOC in Tripoli survived the conflicts relatively unscathed, emerging as perhaps the only major institution that could function effectively across the country.

Appointed NOC chairman in May 2014, Sanalla and his colleagues travel freely to meet people, unlike the country's politicians who are largely split between east and west and rarely venture beyond their base.

Last summer, with production languishing below 250,000 bpd, Sanalla began a campaign against the blockades, criss-crossing Libya's huge land mass in an eight-seat propeller plane.

"Since last July, for one year, I'm always moving - all the oil fields, all the tribes, all the blockaders. I sit down with all of them and explain the problem," said Sanalla, 56, a chemical engineer and former operations manager who has worked at the NOC for more than three decades. "To solve the problems you need face-to-face dialogue."

A big breakthrough came in September when Ibrahim Jathran, an armed group leader who had closed several key ports and whom Sanalla vocally denounced, lost control of the terminals to eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar.

Haftar, widely seen to harbor national ambitions, quickly allowed the NOC to reopen the ports and connected fields.

Three months later a two-year blockade on pipelines leading to Sharara and El Feel was lifted near the western town of Zintan, after months of NOC mediation with the factions involved. The fields now account for about of third of Libya's total output.

During Sanalla's visit to El Feel and Sharara, he warmly greeted employees, leaders of the local community and turbaned guards, pausing for selfies and handshakes before leading discussions over local conditions and requests for aid.

At Sharara, Sanalla handed over provisions for the nearby town of Ubari, including hundreds of beds and equipment for schools. A community leader at El Feel said he needed water pumps, petrol stations, football pitches and leisure parks.

Sanalla would not give details about exactly what he has had to promise in his various deals to reopen fields and pipelines. But he insists he has never offered payments.

"The issue is to explain to people today in two oil fields that we have a partnership with the stakeholders," Sanalla said. He said his message is "production is very crucial to you as well, not just to us".

There are limits and risks to the NOC's strategy.

The Government of National Accord in Tripoli has failed to extend its authority or win over factions in the east since it started governing in March last year, meaning bigger political and security threats to Libya's production still loom.

Relations between the GNA and NOC have also soured over a contract dispute with German oil firm Wintershall, which has two concessions in the east. The NOC accused the government of using the dispute to extend its power over the oil sector and accused Wintershall of colluding with the GNA.

Sanalla says politicians need to stop competing for control of oil resources and give the NOC the budget it needs.

The GNA responds that even with oil output on the rise, funding is limited. According to the central bank, oil revenues are expected to reach 16.6 billion Libyan dinars ($11.4 billion) this year, still well short of the 21 billion dinars ($14.5 billion) needed for state salary payments alone.

Workers and locals remain restless, worn down by years sliding living standards. Even oil employees have trouble accessing salaries.

Sharara, where output is about 270,000 bpd, suffered brief closures when valves were switched off in March and April, and again when staff went on strike after a worker drowned in a swimming pool at the field in June.

El Feel, now pumping about 60,000 bpd, did not open until May because of a protest by guards, who in reality are militiamen with local loyalties.

Sanalla says the NOC is doing what it can for communities near oil facilities, but it takes time.

"We cannot substitute (for) a government," Sanalla said in an interview with Reuters in May. "We cannot do everything."

Editing by Sonya Hepinstall

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Backing of workers, communities key to Libya's oil revival - Reuters