Abdullah al-Thani

Abdullah al-Thani
Prime Minister of Libya
Incumbent
Assumed office 11 March 2014* Acting: 11 March 2014 – 8 April 2014 Acting from 11 August 2015
President	Nouri Abusahmain Abu Bakr Baira (Acting) Aguila Saleh Issa
Preceded by	Ali Zeidan
Personal details
Born	1954 (age 62–63)[1]
Political party	Independent
Alma mater	Royal Libyan Military Academy
*Thani's premiership was disputed from 6 September 2014, first by Omar al-Hassi, by Khalifa al-Ghawi, and then by Fayez al-Sarraj.

Abdullah al-Thani (Arabic: عبد الله الثني‎‎  Libyan pronunciation: [ʕæbˈdɑllɑ tˈtini, -ˈθæni]) is a Libyan politician who became Prime Minister of Libya on 11 March 2014, when he took over in an interim capacity after Congress dismissed Ali Zeidan.^[2] He was previously the defence minister in the government of Ali Zeidan.^[3]

Prime Minister

In April 2014, al-Thani negotiated the reopening of two out of four oil ports seized by rebels.^[4] Also, after he threatened to resign, the Congress officially confirmed him as prime minister in a permanent capacity and vested him with greater powers to deal with Libya's problems.^[2]

However, al-Thani submitted his resignation as prime minister of the interim government on 13 April 2014, although he was asked to stay on as a caretaker until the election of a successor.^[5] Ahmed Maiteeq was eventually elected as the new prime minister, but Maiteeq's election was voided on 9 June and al-Thani was reinstated as caretaker.^[6]

After the election of a Council of Deputies to govern Libya, al-Thani attended the opening ceremony of the new parliament in Tobruk on 4 August 2014.^[7] He and his cabinet again resigned on 29 August 2014,^[8] citing a need to give the controversial new parliament a chance to choose a new, inclusive government^[9] after Islamist lawmakers convened a new meeting of the General National Congress in Tripoli and declared al-Thani dismissed, although he defended the elected Council of Deputies as "the only legitimate authority in the country".^[10] The next week, however, the Tobruk-based lawmakers reappointed al-Thani as prime minister and tasked him with forming a "crisis government".^[11]

With Libya sliding into civil war between the two rival governments, al-Thani ordered General Khalifa Haftar to "liberate" Tripoli in October 2014.^[12] In March 2015, following the start of a military intervention in support of the internationally recognised government in Yemen, al-Thani compared the situation in his country to the situation in Yemen and said Libya would call on the Arab League to "restore legitimacy".^[13]

On 26 May 2015 he survived an assassination attempt when gunmen fired on his convoy in Tobruk.^[14]

Abdullah al-Thani offered to resign as Prime Minister on 11 August 2015, over a year into the Second Libyan Civil War, saying his "exit is the solution."^[15]

See also

• First Al-Thani Cabinet
• Second Al-Thani Cabinet

References

Heads of government of Libya
Kingdom of Libya (1951–1969)	Mahmud al-Muntasir Muhammad Sakizli Mustafa Ben Halim Abdul Majid Kubar Muhammad Osman Said Mohieddin Fikini Mahmud al-Muntasir Hussein Maziq Abdul Qadir al-Badri Abdul Hamid al-Bakkoush Wanis al-Qaddafi
Libyan Arab Republic (1969–1977)	Mahmud Sulayman al-Maghribi Muammar Gaddafi Abdessalam Jalloud
Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1977–2011)	Abdul Ati al-Obeidi Jadallah Azzuz at-Talhi Muhammad az-Zaruq Rajab Jadallah Azzuz at-Talhi Umar Mustafa al-Muntasir Abuzed Omar Dorda Abdul Majid al-Qa′ud Muhammad Ahmad al-Mangoush Imbarek Shamekh Shukri Ghanem Baghdadi Mahmudi
Transitional period (2011–present)	Mahmoud Jibril Ali Tarhouni Abdurrahim El-Keib Ali Zeidan Abdullah al-Thani (contested by Ahmed Maiteeq Omar al-Hassi Khalifa al-Ghawil) Fayez al-Sarraj (contested by Abdullah al-Thani Khalifa al-Ghawi Omar al-Hassi)
Italics indicate acting officeholder