TRIPOLI: Libya has reopened its main border post with Tunisia after closing it for more than six weeks amid tensions over smuggling, Tripoli’s interior ministry said on Saturday.
The border at Ras Jedir was re-opened to “facilitate... Libyan and Tunisian travelers,” the ministry said, without providing further details.
An AFP correspondent in Ben Guerdane, a Tunisian town about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Ras Jedir, confirmed the crossing had been re-opened, but said Tunisians were protesting over a lack of consultation with residents.
More than 200 people set fire to tires and blocked Libyan travelers between Ben Guerdane and the border.
The correspondent said the protesters were angry that Libyan authorities did not negotiate with them over the crossing’s re-opening, rather than with Tunisia’s government.
It was not immediately clear what the protesters were demanding from the Libyan authorities.
But prior to the border’s closure, Tripoli had banned the passage of goods to Tunisia in order to rein in the smuggling of fuel and other items, a local Libyan official said.
The ban on goods and the closure provoked protests by traders in Ben Guerdane, whose residents depend on cross-border traffic — including smuggling — for their livelihoods.
The Ras Jedir crossing has been closed several times in recent years, leading to repeated tensions on the Tunisian side.
Tunisian authorities have cited difficulties in negotiating with Tripoli over customs arrangements amid the political chaos that has engulfed Libya since the fall of dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
The re-opening of the border came several hours after the closure of Tripoli’s only working airport, due to fighting.
Libya re-opens main border post with Tunisia
Libya re-opens main border post with Tunisia
- The border at Ras Jedir was re-opened to “facilitate... Libyan and Tunisian travelers,” the ministry said
- Tunisians were protesting over a lack of consultation with residents
In major policy shift on Syria, UN Security Council lifts sanctions on Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham
- Move reflects evolving Syrian political landscape in the post-Assad era, ending a global freeze on assets, travel ban and arms embargo
NEW YORK CITY: The UN Security Council on Friday removed Al-Nusra Front, the militant group that evolved into Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, from its so-called Daesh and Al-Qaeda Sanctions List.
The move signals a major shift in international policy toward Syria’s evolving political landscape in the post-Assad era, and ends a global freeze on assets, travel ban and arms embargo that have been imposed on the group since 2014.
Al-Nusra Front and Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham were led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa, formerly Abu Mohammed Al-Julani, who is now Syria’s president and was a leading figure in the offensive that toppled the Assad regime.
The consensus decision by the Security Council’s sanctions committee was announced by the UK, which holds the presidency of the Security Council this month and was acting in the absence of the chair of the committee. It followed a request by the new Syrian authorities to delist “Al-Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant.”
The decision means measures that were applied to Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham under Security Council Resolution 2734, adopted in 2024, no longer apply. As a result, UN member states are notrequired to freeze the group’s funds, restrict the movement of its representatives, or block the supply or transfer of arms and related materiel.
Al-Nusra Front was added to the sanctions list for its ties to Al-Qaeda and involvement in the financing and execution of militant activities during the war in Syria. The UN initially continued to treat the group’s successor organization, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, as a listed alias.
Al-Sharaa has said the group severed all prior transnational jihadist links and is now solely focused on local Syrian matters.
