Abdul Raheem al-Keeb elected Libya’s interim PM
Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council has elected little-known academic Abdul Raheem al-Keeb as the new interim prime minister to guide the country as it emerges from a bitter civil war towards a new constitution and democratic elections.
Libyan new interim Prime Minister Abdel-Rahim al-Kib speaks to reporters in Tripoli, Libya, 31 October 2011. Engineer Abdel-Rahim al-Kib won 26 votes in the 51-member council to head a new government, a council spokesman said, adding that he would appoint a cabinet in the coming days.
With vast oil and gas reserves and a relatively small population, Libya has the potential to become a prosperous nation, but regional rivalries pent up during Muammar Gaddafi’s 42 years of one-man rule could descend into a cycle of revenge.
Keeb, a professor of electrical engineering, will have to rein in the armed militias that sprang up in each town to overthrow Gaddafi and reconcile those remaining loyal to the old rule while brokering a new system to govern the country.
“We salute and remember the revolutionaries who we will never forget. We will not forget their families,” he said. “I say to them that the NTC did not and will not forget them and also the coming government will do the same.”
The NTC has promised to hold elections for a national assembly after eight months. The assembly will then spend a year drawing up a constitution ahead of parliamentary elections.
“This transition period has its own challenges. One thing we will be doing is working very closely with the NTC and listening to the Libyan people,” Keeb said after 26 of the 51 NTC members elected him for the post in Tripoli yesterday.
An academic and a businessman, Keeb has spent much of his life outside Libya, studying in the United States before taking up academic posts in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
NTC members described Keeb as “quiet and friendly” and said he had helped with the financing of the revolt against Gaddafi.
Published by Libya TVShort URL: http://english.libya.tv/?p=14371
Congratulations to the Libyan people and their National Transitional Council! You have made an excellent selection of a respected academic to be interim Prime Minister. His experience as an engineer and a long-time resident of the United States will help him guide the development of a prosperous, democratic, tolerant and inclusive Libya. Those fear-mongers in the West and the Middle East who falsely predict that the masses of Libyans will not replace a dictatorship with a true democracy will be sorely disappointed. I hope and pray that Mr. al-Kib (aka al-Keib, al-Keeb in Western news reports) will re-establish tourism quickly so we American supporters of the Libyan people can quickly visit and celebrate the new Libya!
You my old friend of electrical power engineering (faculty of engineering, university of Tripoli), it is your duty for the start up the bridging of the horrible 42 years of dictatorship under Gaddafi and his criminal fellows. Based on reconciliation and unity, the Libyans are then committed to support Abdul Raheem, as elected Libya’s interim PM, for the sake of the new Libya for all while the world is continuously watching the birth of a civilized new nation, in which freedom, equality, constitution, human rights, law and order shall apply. There is no option than to conclude acc. I am pretty sure that such a milestone shall be accomplished. God bless Libya.
No one can be Mr.Jebrail !! Jebrail is the best, we really gonna miss him. The revlotion was succed by Jebrail no body els. May god bless Mr.Jebrail.