Mahmud al-Muntasir

Mahmud al-Muntasir
Prime Minister of Libya
In office 20 January 1964 – 20 March 1965
Monarch	Idris
Preceded by	Mohieddin Fikini
Succeeded by	Hussein Maziq
In office 29 March 1951 – 19 February 1954 Acting: 29 March 1951 - 24 December 1951
Monarch	Idris
Preceded by	Position Established
Succeeded by	Muhammad Sakizli
Foreign Minister of Libya
In office 24 December 1951 – 19 February 1954
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Ali Jerbi (Before independence)
Succeeded by	Muhammad Sakizli
Interior Minister of Libya
In office 22 January – 26 March 1964
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Wanis al-Qaddafi
Succeeded by	Muhammad el-Bishti
Personal details
Born	1903 Misrata, Ottoman Tripolitania (now Libya)
Died	September 1970 Libyan Arab Republic
Political party	Independent

Mahmud al-Muntasir (Arabic: محمود المنتصر ‎‎) was the first Prime minister of Libya from March 29, 1951 to February 19, 1954, and again from January 20, 1964 to March 20, 1965. He was also the Minister of Foreign Affairs during his first term.

Family background

• Mahmud al-Muntasir was a descendant of the al-Muntasir family, an old family from Misrata, whom its ancestor the Kuwafi tribe from Misrata.^[1]
• He is the father of Libyan foreign minister Omar Mahmud al-Muntasir, and grandfather of Libyan footballer, Jehad al-Muntasir^[2]

Before Independence

• During the Italian occupation of Libya, al-Muntasir had presumably won the trust of Italians. After the political change in 1969, many Libyans regarded al-Muntasir as a puppet. This is far from being fair since al-Muntasir, in the 1930s, had no foresight about the future telling him that the Italians would be expelled.
• On 25 November 1950, members of the "National Association" has met for the first time with the goal of writing the Libyan Constitution. Al-Muntasir, then, was one of the delegates from Tripolitania. In March 1951, he was assigned to form this province’s government, and by the end of month, he was assigned to form the provisional federal government of Libya.

Early Years of Independence

• On 24 December 1951, King Idris I of Libya declared its independence, and al-Muntasir became the prime minister of independent Libya.
• One of the first major challenges al-Muntasir has met was the situation of foreign military bases in Libya. To strengthen his position at negotiations with Great Britain and United States, he first asked help from Egypt, then under King Farouk. The terms of the Egyptian government were hardly to be accepted, they offered only one million pounds, and demanded that this aid must be supervised by Egyptians, and demanded also the ceding Jaghbub oasis to them. Meanwhile, the British offered 2.75 sterling pounds as a price for the bases at Libya to be remained, so al-Muntasir, of course, accepted the British offer.
• One of most controversial decisions of al-Muntasir was dissolving the political parties in Libya, and expatriating the famous political leader Bashir es Sadawi.
• Al-Muntasir resigned from office on 15 February 1954, then, he was appointed as the Libyan ambassador in London.

The Second Cabinet

• In January 1964, King Idris recalled al-Muntasir to form a new cabinet. At that time, troubles were not very far. On 22 February 1964, President Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt made a speech in his country saying that:" … [the foreign military] bases existing in Libya …are a danger to the whole Arab nation..". This speech, accompanied with anti-Libyan propaganda in the Egyptian media, agitated the Libyan people, so al-Muntasir decided to commence the negotiations of evacuation with Great Britain and United States, and Hussein Maziq, his foreign minister, was assigned to run the negotiations. Unexpectedly, when Maziq was attending an Arab summit in Cairo the same year, President Nasser told him, after an American pressure on Nasser, not to be in a rush to eject the American forces from Libya. This meant actually suspension of the evacuation's negotiations. Maziq told the story of this meeting while defending himself at the Libyan People's Court in 1970.
• Al-Muntasir resigned in March 1965 for health reasons, then, he was appointed as the chief of royal bureau.

Death

After the coup d'état of 1 September 1969, al-Mutasir was arrested, then died in prison in September 1970. There were rumors saying that he committed suicide because of bad treatment, but these rumors were never confirmed.

Notes

1. Enrico De Agostini, “La Popolazione della Tripolitania”, translated to Arabic by Kalifa Tillisi, Ad Dar al Arabiya lil Kitab, 1978, p.70.
2. Bashir as-Sunni al-Muntasir, "Muzakkirat shadid ala al ahd al malaki", 1st ed., 2008. pp.153-154.

References

• Al-Ahram Newspaper, 12 November 1969, No.30287
• Mohamed Yousef el-Magariaf, "Libia bain al Madi wal Hadir: Safahat men at Tarikh as Siyasi", 4 vols., Markaz ad Dirasat al Libiya, Oxford, & Maktabat Wahba 14 al-Gomhuriya street Cairo, 2004-2006.
• Mustafa Ben Halim, "Safahat Matwiya men Tarikh Libia as Siyasi", Matabe' al-Ahram at Tejariya, Qalyub, Misr, 1992.
• Mustafa Ben Halim, "Libia : Inbe'ath Omma.. wa Soqout Dawla", Manshurat al Jamal, Köln, Germany, 2003.