Gaddafi

Muammar Gaddafi ruled Libya from September 1969, when he led a military coup that deposed King Idris, until his capture and killing in October 2011 during the civil war that followed the Arab Spring. He held no formal state title after 1977, governing instead through a system of "people's committees" underpinned by his Green Book political philosophy, which blended Arab nationalism, Islamic socialism, and direct democracy theory. In practice his regime was a personalised dictatorship that relied on tribal patronage networks and oil revenues to maintain control.

Gaddafi's Libya was internationally isolated for much of the 1980s and 1990s over its support for terrorism, including the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Western sanctions were tightened after Lockerbie and lifted only after Libya agreed to pay compensation to victims' families and surrendered its Weapons of Mass Destruction programme in 2003. The United States established the sanctions framework through Executive Order 13566 in February 2011, as the Arab Spring uprising began; the UN Security Council authorised a no-fly zone and NATO intervened militarily in March 2011. Gaddafi was captured by rebel forces in Sirte and killed on 20 October 2011.

Gaddafi's relevance to the 2026 Iran conflict lies in the OFAC sanctions precedent his regime set. The General License U issued for Iranian crude, which authorised sale of cargoes loaded on or before 20 March 2026, was structured on the model of Libya-style general licences that were wound down as the Gaddafi regime fell. The expiry of General License U on 19 April became a critical legal deadline in the Iran blockade, removing the legal basis for 128 million barrels of Iranian crude in transit .