A fresh political standoff has emerged in Libya between Mohammed el-Menfi, head of the Presidential Council, and outgoing Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibeh, centred on who holds the authority to appoint ambassadors and a permanent foreign minister — a post that has been vacant since summer 2023. On 19 April, el-Menfi sent Dbeibeh an official letter asserting that diplomatic appointments fall under the Presidential Council's remit, demanding a formal ministerial candidate and suspending the current acting foreign affairs official along with his decisions. The dispute has intensified amid leaked details of a US-brokered reunification plan, reportedly proposed by American envoy Massad Boulos, that would place a son of eastern commander Khalifa Haftar at the head of the Presidential Council while keeping Dbeibeh as prime minister of a unified government — exposing deep ambiguities in the country's 2021 political agreement that analysts say have long enabled such power struggles.