Libya’s returning oil wealth could bring back cheap fuel, food and foreign goods in a subsidy-based system in the most optimistic scenario. But as oil prices and production rise, the future of new political developments hangs in the balance in a growing power struggle between Russia and the United Nations. Last week, the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Libya announced plans to reshuffle its leadership, which it hoped would be a way to bring influential General Khalifa Haftar—the GNA’s key rival—into the Tripoli-based organization’s ranks. Cairo hosted members of both parties to discuss cooperation between Haftar’s House of Representatives/Libyan National Army based in Tobruk and the GNA – which vowed a “180 degree turn” in relations if Haftar agreed to take a role within its hierarchy. But the meeting never happened. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi could not convince Haftar to accept a position within the GNA’s […]