Libya’s Bashagha says oil blockade tied to budget release

Libya’s oil blockade would likely end if the central bank supplies the funds for the budget that parliament approved this week, the parliament-appointed prime minister, Fathi Bashagha, told Reuters. Bashagha was sworn in by the eastern-based parliament in March but Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, who was installed as prime minister last year through a UN-backed process, has rejected its move leading to a standoff. Since April, groups in the east have forcibly closed many Libyan oil facilities to demand that Bashagha take power in the capital, blockading much of Libya’s oil output and putting new pressu…

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