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More information about Libya is available on the Libya Page and from other Department of State publications and other sources listed at the end of this fact sheet.

U.S.-LIBYA RELATIONS

The United States established diplomatic relations with Libya in 1951. In 1969, the army overthrew the king, and coup leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi became de facto head of state. Qadhafi tried to brutally suppress an uprising against his dictatorship in 2011. Under the auspices of a UN Security Council resolution, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France launched military action to protect Libyan civilians. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization continued these efforts as "Operation Unified Protector." Qadhafi was killed during the conflict.

Libya faces the challenges of building democratic institutions, protecting the universal rights of all Libyans, promoting accountable and honest government, rebuilding its economy, and establishing security throughout the country. On September 11-12, 2012, armed extremists attacked the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, killing four U.S, government personnel, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. The United States continues to have a strategic interest in a stable and prosperous Libya, and following the attacks in Benghazi, U.S. officials at the highest levels reaffirmed their support for a peaceful, democratic transition in Libya,in cooperation with the UN and other international partners.

U.S. Assistance to Libya

Recognizing Libya's own substantial resources, the United States is committed to providing targeted assistance that advances primary U.S. goals: transparent, strong and accountable security sector institutions in Libya that protect the civilian population; effectively patrol the countrys vast borders; contribute to regional stability; and wrest control of weapons and vast swaths of land from extragovernmental militias. The United States also supports the creation of a democratic Libya that is secure, peaceful, prosperous, and an active member of the international community. A fact sheet on U.S. assistance to Libya can be found here.

Bilateral Economic Relations

Oil revenues constitute Libya's principal source of foreign exchange. In 2011, the U.S. imposed sanctions on the Qadhafi regime following the outbreak of violence against civilians. Most U.S. and UN sanctions against Libyan institutions were lifted at the request of the new Libyan government. Many U.S. companies, particularly in the oil sector, have resumed their operations in Libya. The United States also has signed a trade and investment framework agreement with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, of which Libya is a member.

Libya's Membership in International Organizations

Libya and the United States belong to a number of the same international organizations, including the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank. Libya is an observer to the World Trade Organization.

See the article here:
Libya - U.S. Department of State

Location Flag Quick Facts Capital Tripoli Government Provisional parliamentary republic Currency Libyan dinar (LYD) Area 1,759,540 km2 Population 5,900,754, incl. 166,510 non-nationals (July 2006 est.) Language Arabic, Berber, Italian, English, all are widely understood in the major cities Religion Sunni Muslim 97%, Christian and other 3% Electricity 127V/50Hz or 230V/50Hz Country code +218 Internet TLD .ly Time Zone UTC +2

Libya (Arabic: Lby), is a country in North Africa. In the north it has a Mediterranean Sea coast, with Egypt to the east and Tunisia to the west. It also has land borders with Algeria, Chad, Niger and Sudan. More than 90% of the country is desert or semidesert.

Archaeological evidence indicates that from as early as 8,000 BC, the coastal plain of Ancient Libya was inhabited by a Neolithic people, the Berbers, who were skilled in the domestication of cattle and the cultivation of crops. Later, the area known in modern times as Libya also was occupied by a series of other peoples, with the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Persian Empire, Romans, Vandals, Arabs, Turks and Byzantines ruling all or part of the area.

From 1912-1927, the territory of Libya was known as Italian North Africa. From 1927-1934, the territory was split into two colonies, Italian Cyrenaica and Italian Tripolitania, run by Italian governors. During the Italian colonial period, between 20% and 50% of the Libyan population died in the struggle for independence, and some 150,000 Italians settled in Libya, constituting roughly one-fifth of the total population.

In 1934, Italy adopted the name "Libya" (used by the Greeks for all of North Africa, except Egypt) as the official name of the colony (made up of the three provinces of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan). King Idris I, Emir of Cyrenaica, led Libyan resistance to Italian occupation between the two world wars. Following Allied victories against the Italians and Germans, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were under British administration, from 1953-1951, while the French controlled Fezzan. In 1944, Idris returned from exile in Cairo but declined to resume permanent residence in Cyrenaica until the removal of some aspects of foreign control in 1947. Under the terms of the 1947 peace treaty with the Allies, Italy relinquished all claims to Libya.

On 1 September 1969, a small group of military officers led by then 27 year old army officer Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi staged a coup dtat against King Idris. At the time, Idris was in Europe for medical treatment. His nephew, Crown Prince Sayyid Hasan ar-Rida al-Mahdi as-Sanussi, became King. It was clear that the revolutionary officers who had announced the deposition of King Idris did not want to appoint him over the instruments of state as King. Gaddafi was at the time only a captain and his co-conspirators were all junior officers. With the assistance of the headquarters army personnel the group seized the Libyan military headquarters and the radio broadcasting station with only 48 rounds of revolver ammunition. Before the end of 1 September, Sayyid Hasan ar-Rida had been formally deposed by the revolutionary army officers and put under house arrest. Revolutionary officers then abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the new Libyan Arab Republic. Gaddafi was at various times referred to as the "Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution" in government statements and the official press. In the final years leading up to the 2011 civil war the nation was formally titled the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (Arabic phrasebook: al-Jamhriyyah al-Arabiyyah al-Lbiyyah ash-Shabiyyah al-Ishtirkiyyah al-Um) and it embodied the legacies of a system of governance that had been in power for more than 40 years. During the period 1977 to 2011, Libya was known as the "Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" at the United Nations rather than by the longer official name.

In early 2011 the authority of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya government was challenged by protesters, leading to a civil war.

In March 2011 NATO led forces intervened with airstrikes, military training and material support to the rebels. By late August Libyan government rule was being seriously challenged in many parts of Libya, including direct threats to the government's seat of power in Tripoli. By 28 August 2011 rebel fighters, backed by NATO air cover and limited NATO supplied ground support including special forces detachments, entered Tripoli and seized control of the city after intensive urban fighting between the opposing forces. In late July the UK government recognised the NTC rebels as the sole representatives of the Libyan state. The day after Major-General Abdel Fatah Younes, the rebels military leader, was killed by NTC fighters suspected to be supporters of Khalifa Haftar, a former army officer who also claimed to be the rebel armed forces leader and had been operating a parallel chain of command.

Attacks by rebel fighters, NATO special forces detachments, airstrikes, shelling and rocket barrages where sustained upon Libyan urban areas and infrastructure. In September 2011 the country remained highly dangerous and unstable with normal civil structures either seriously disrupted or destroyed in many parts of the country. Remnants of the Libyan army and Libyan government supporters continued to mount fierce resistance to the NTC attempts to take over the country and much of the nation remained a war zone.

On 16 September 2011, the United Nations recognised the National Transition Council as the sole legal representative of the country. In late September fighting was still widespread in Libya and on 29 September NTC leader Mahmud Jibril cancelled the planned announcement of a cabinet of ministers for a Libyan government, stating, The announcement of a new transitional government has been postponed indefinitely in order to finalise consultations. The principal leadership figure of the NTC was Mahmoud Jibril however he announced his plane to step down from a leadership role in late October and prior to the killing of announced he was quitting announcing that the situation in Libya had moved into "a political struggle with no boundaries", he stated that the political struggle was requiring finances, organisation, arms and ideologies that he felt unable to provide.

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Libya travel guide - Wikitravel - Wikitravel - The Free ...

State of Libya

/ Libya /

Libya (Arabic: Lby, Berber: Libya), officially the State of Libya,[5][6] is a country in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west. It covers an area of almost 1.8million square kilometres (700,000sqmi). It is the 17th largest country in the world.[7]

Libya's borders touch the countries of Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Algeria, Niger, and Tunisia. To its north is the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of Libya is Tripoli, which is a port on the sea. Tripoli has about one million people.[8] Libya covers an area of about 1,760,000km2 (679,540sqmi).

[9]

The highest point in Libya is Bikku Bitti 2,267 m above sea level and the lowest point is Sabkhat Ghuzayyil -47 m at below sea level.[8] Most of the country is flat, with large plains. Because it is so dry, only 1.03% of the land is suitable for farming.[8]

The area around Tripoli is called Tripolitania, and it was the most developed during the Ottoman occupation.

Cyrenaica is an area of the north east coast.[10] It is divided from Tripolitania by the Gulf of Sirte.[11] It was named by the Greeks who built the city of Cirene in 630 BC.[10] The area was where many of the battles of World War II were fought. It includes the cities of Tobruk and Benghazi.[10] Like Tripolitania, Cyrenaica was also governed by Britain after the war.

The Fezzan is an area of desert in south west Libya which the Italians made a part of Tripoli in 1912.[12] After the war this area was governed by France, who wanted to annex to their Empire.

The population of Libya in 2011 was said to be about 6,597,960.[8] This is not a large number for a country that has such a large area, so the population density of Libya is low. This is because much of Libya is in the Sahara Desert. Most people in Libya live in cities on the coast. People from Libya are called Libyans.

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Libya - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

TRIPOLI - The kidnappers of Jordan's ambassador in Tripoli on Tuesday demanded the release of a Libyan who is serving a life prison sentence in Jordan, a security source said.

LONDON - A tanker is due to load 1 million barrels of crude on Tuesday from Libya's reopened Hariga port, its first export shipment since a deal to end months of closures at its main oil terminals, the National Oil Corp. (NOC) said.

TRIPOLI - Libya opened the trial of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi's sons and dozens of his ex-officials on Monday in a test of its transition to democracy, but it was quickly adjourned as some of the investigations had not been completed.

TRIPOLI - Libyan prosecutors on Monday began the trial of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi's sons and former regime officials in a major test for the North African state's transition to a democracy.

TRIPOLI - Saadi Gaddafi and Saif al-Islam, two of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's sons, are expected to appear in court on Monday, facing charges of corruption and war crimes alongside more than 30 other Gaddafi-era officials.

TRIPOLI - Libya's interim prime minister handed his resignation to parliament on Sunday, just one month into the job, saying gunmen had tried to attack his family.

TRIPOLI - Libyan Interim Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni handed his resignation to parliament on Sunday after less than two weeks in the post, saying gunmen had tried to attack his family.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon - For two weeks now, the rifles have been silent along Syria Street in Lebanon's Tripoli, an area shot up so often that even memorial posters of men killed just a few months ago are speckled with bullet holes.

TRIPOLI - Libya's bid to resume normal oil exports after blockades at eastern ports that have lasted months stumbled on Friday when the oil terminal and refinery at Zawiya in the west were closed by fresh protests.

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Libya | Reuters - Business & Financial News, Breaking US ...

TRIPOLI, Libya Dragging deeply on a cigarette and swirling his espresso dregs, the curly-haired young militiaman offered up a vivid account of the battles he and fellow rebels waged to bring down dictator Moammar Kadafi days of blazing bombardment, thirsty desert nights.

Then he voiced his dismay at the chokehold those same armed groups now maintain on Libya.

"We fought so hard to make a new country," said the 28-year-old of Libyan extraction who left Britain to join the revolution that swept this North African nation in 2011. "Now it's all about money. Money and guns."

The rebel groups that worked together to oust Kadafi have fragmented into rivalrous factions whose outsized collective power has sapped Libya's oil wealth, turned a nascent government structure to tatters and ushered in a grim cycle of assassinations, abductions and firefights in the streets.

International attention tends to focus on the most audacious acts of militias, such as the abduction in October of the prime minister, the storming of various government ministries and last month's bid to illicitly sell $36 million worth of oil. The tanker used by the militia was intercepted by U.S. Navy SEALs and handed over to the Libyan government.

But it is their cumulative daily actions that have cemented the grip of armed factions. With control of nearly all the country's major military and industrial installations, observers say, the groups engage in arms smuggling on an epic scale, extort staggering protection payments from businesses and regularly engage in turf wars that send scrambling anyone unlucky enough to be in the vicinity when the shooting starts.

The main armed factions number in the dozens but splinter groups run to the hundreds, holding sway over economic, political and social life. Their encampments dot the capital. Weaponry is on brazen display in a central Tripoli marketplace. Behind one luxury hotel, truck-mounted antiaircraft guns line a vacant lot like taxi touts hustling for fares.

Some of the groups have been nominally integrated into the weak central government, their allegiance proffered in the manner of a gangland offer that can't be refused. Drawing government pay but answering to their own commanders, the militias in effect control oil fields and hospitals, ports and prisons and even Tripoli's international airport, the main gateway to the outside world.

A powerful militia from Zintan recently commandeered a planeload of weapons intended for Libya's military, a government official said, an account confirmed by several others with knowledge of the incident. The Zintanis, they said, brought trucks onto the tarmac of the Tripoli airport, offloaded the arms and drove away.

"They do whatever they please, and their guns speak for them," said the middle-aged bureaucrat whose government job at the airport forces him to work alongside members of the militia from Zintan, a major town in Libya's western mountains. "Whatever they want, they will get."

Excerpt from:
Libya remains in the grip of rivalrous rebel factions