Abdulhamid Dbeibeh and Jeremy Brent, the US State Department’s senior policy adviser for Libya, discussed Libya’s political future and preparations for elections during their meeting in Tripoli. The two sides also addressed the 4+4 Committee’s agreement and efforts to sustain reconciliation in Libya.
The legal framework for elections
One of the main topics of the meeting was creating the conditions necessary to hold elections. In this context, the participants reviewed the 4+4 Committee’s work to prepare the legal framework for elections and restructure the High National Electoral Commission.
They also discussed the importance of moving forward on the basis of completed intra-Libyan reconciliation efforts. Support for the political process from the United Nations Support Mission in Libya was another topic of discussion.
The agreement signed by the 4+4 Committee
The committee, made up of four members representing the Government of National Unity and four members representing the forces led by Libya’s eastern leadership, signed an agreement on August 30 at the headquarters of the United Nations mission in Tripoli.
The agreement covers restructuring the electoral commission and amending the electoral framework. The electoral framework refers to the body of laws regulating and managing the electoral process.
Unified spending and oil production
The agreement on unified development spending was also on the agenda for Dbeibeh and Brent. Full compliance with all of the agreement’s provisions and elements was considered essential to establishing a common approach to development spending, strengthening fiscal discipline and transparency, supporting the fair distribution of resources, and preserving financial and economic stability.
The state of Libya’s oil sector and support for the National Oil Corporation were also discussed. One of the topics was enabling the corporation to maintain production stability and manage the sector on professional and transparent foundations.
The components of the 2026 budget
Representatives of Libya’s House of Representatives and the High Council of State reached an agreement on the “Unified Development Program” on November 18, 2025, with the aim of unifying the development process nationwide and reducing parallel spending.
Representatives of the two councils also signed an annex to the agreement on April 11 providing for the unification of public spending and the adoption of financial statements. This agreement was the first similar accord in the country in more than 13 years.
Libya’s unified 2026 budget amounts to approximately 167.36 billion Libyan dinars, or more than $26 billion. The budget allocates 73.36 billion dinars for salaries, 44 billion dinars for subsidies, 10 billion dinars for operating expenses and approximately 40 billion dinars for development projects.
Libya’s two-government structure
Libya has two governments. The Tripoli-based Government of National Unity administers the western regions, while the other government, appointed by the House of Representatives in early 2022 and based in Benghazi, controls the east and much of the south.
Libyans hope that the transitional periods and political and armed conflicts that have continued since the end of Muammar Gaddafi’s rule from 1969 to 2011 will come to an end through the long-awaited elections.
