Abdessalam Jalloud

Abdessalam Jalloud (Arabic: عبد السلام جلود‎‎) (born 15 December 1944) was Prime Minister of Libya from 16 July 1972 to 2 March 1977, under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi. He was also Minister of Finance from 1970 until 1972.

Career

Major Abdessalam Jalloud entered the military academy of Benghazi where they formed the hard core of the "free officers" who staged a military coup in September 1969 launching the Libyan revolution. Jalloud became Gaddafi’s adviser and deputy chairman of the Libyan Revolutionary Command Council (RCC). He was entrusted with the supervision of the oil sector, which represented 96% of the country's income. In September 1970 Jalloud succeeded in imposing a rise in oil prices to all companies operating in Libya, opening the way for the other oil producers and for the subsequent rises of the 1970s. The same year, Jalloud also succeeded in negotiating for the evacuation of American and British military bases from Libya. During the negotiations for the evacuation of the American Air Force base at Wheelus, on the outskirts of Tripoli, the then 25-year-old Jalloud, dressed in military regalia, was advised by the American diplomatic envoy leading the U.S. delegation that he could not negotiate, "under the gun," nor, in the clamorous atmosphere of the hundreds of Libyan protestors who had been gathered outside the venue, loudly refusing to depart the scene prior to an evacuation date being set. Jalloud exited the room and removed his pistol, returning to state, "As for the demonstrators, you take your orders from the U.S. Government while I take mine from those voices outside." American troops were subsequently evacuated and Wheelus handed over to the Libyans, on June 11, 1970.

In March 1970, six months after the Libyan revolution, Jalloud went to Beijing to build bilateral ties and evaluate areas of potential scientific cooperation between Libya and the People’s Republic of China. As part of the Libyan state’s efforts to evaluate solutions to what was then a foreseeable water crisis in the North African country, Jalloud solicited Chinese assistance for a peaceful nuclear energy program, aimed mainly at expanding Libya’s desalination industry.

Jalloud (from the Magarha tribe) was the second most powerful man in the Libyan regime for over two decades. After several disagreements with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi (from the Qadhadhfa tribe), Jalloud resigned, departing the Libyan political scene, and was replaced by Captain Mohammad Emsied al-Majdoub al-Gaddafi as the general coordinator of the Revolutionary Committees.^[1] The London-based newspaper Al Hayat reported in April 1995 that the authorities had confiscated Jalloud's passport and kept him under surveillance because of growing disagreement between him and Gaddafi. This disagreement was shown in public after the visit of a delegation of 192 Libyan pilgrims to Israel in May 1993.

Libyan civil war

On 19 August 2011, during the Libyan Civil War, it was reported that Jalloud had defected to the rebel forces opposing Gaddafi and was on his way from Zintan to Europe.^[2][3]

References

Heads of government of Libya
Kingdom of Libya (1951–1969)	Mahmud al-Muntasir Muhammad Sakizli Mustafa Ben Halim Abdul Majid Kubar Muhammad Osman Said Mohieddin Fikini Mahmud al-Muntasir Hussein Maziq Abdul Qadir al-Badri Abdul Hamid al-Bakkoush Wanis al-Qaddafi
Libyan Arab Republic (1969–1977)	Mahmud Sulayman al-Maghribi Muammar Gaddafi Abdessalam Jalloud
Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1977–2011)	Abdul Ati al-Obeidi Jadallah Azzuz at-Talhi Muhammad az-Zaruq Rajab Jadallah Azzuz at-Talhi Umar Mustafa al-Muntasir Abuzed Omar Dorda Abdul Majid al-Qa′ud Muhammad Ahmad al-Mangoush Imbarek Shamekh Shukri Ghanem Baghdadi Mahmudi
Transitional period (2011–present)	Mahmoud Jibril Ali Tarhouni Abdurrahim El-Keib Ali Zeidan Abdullah al-Thani (contested by Ahmed Maiteeq Omar al-Hassi Khalifa al-Ghawil) Fayez al-Sarraj (contested by Abdullah al-Thani Khalifa al-Ghawi)
Italics indicate acting officeholder