Abdul Hamid al-Bakkoush ( ar, عبد الحميد البكوش) (10 August 1933 – 4 December 2007) was
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
of
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
from 25 October 1967 to 4 September 1968. After the proclamation of the
Jamahiriya
The Third International Theory () was the style of government proposed by Muammar Gaddafi in the early 1970s, on which his government, the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, was officially based. It was partly inspired by Islami ...
by Gaddafi, he went into exile to
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
and became one of the leaders of the opposition to the Libyan government. He also held the office of Minister of Justice thrice between January 1964 and September 1968.
Prime Minister
In 1968, during his term in office, Libya created, with
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
and
Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
, the
Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries
The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) is a multi-governmental organization headquartered in Kuwait which coordinates energy policies among oil-producing Arab nations. OAPEC's primary objective is safeguarding the cooperati ...
(OAPEC), in order to coordinate production,
refining
{{Unreferenced, date=December 2009
Refining (also perhaps called by the mathematical term affining) is the process of purification of a (1) substance or a (2) form. The term is usually used of a natural resource that is almost in a usable form, b ...
, transport, and commercialization of oil between the three countries. In July of that same year, Libya signed the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation ...
.
After premiership, he became the ambassador of Libya to France.
Opposition from exile
During Gaddafi's presidency he went into exile, first to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and then to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. In 1977 he settled in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, where in 1982 he created the
Libyan Liberation Organization, joining the
Libyan National Salvation Front
The National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL) was a political opposition group active during the rule of the Gaddafi regime in Libya. It was formed in 1981 and called for major liberalising reforms such as democratic elections, a free pr ...
(LNSF), the opposition in exile.
Following the arrival of a suspected Libyan hit squad in Cairo, Egyptian officials faked his assassination on November 12, 1984, publishing staged photos in the press to get Libya to announce the assassination a success. Libya took the bait, and relations between Egypt and Libya, which were already poor, deteriorated even further.
See also
*
History of modern Libya
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bakkoush, Abdul Hamid
Prime Ministers of Libya
1933 births
2007 deaths
National Front for the Salvation of Libya politicians
Libyan exiles
Ambassadors of Libya to France
Justice ministers of Libya
Libyan lawyers
Cairo University alumni
Libyan emigrants to the United Kingdom
People from Tripoli
20th-century lawyers