Ali Jerbi

Ali al-Jerbi (Arabic: علي الجربي‎‎) (1903–1969) is a Libyan politician. He was the first defense minister of Libya after independence.

Personal life

Jerbi was born in Derna, Libya. In 1911 he studied in Turkey, then part of the Ottoman empire. He lived in Istanbul until 1923, when he returned and worked as a teacher. He died in April 1969.

Career

Before independence

He held the post of Minister of Transport of Cyrenaica emirate from September 1949 – July 1950. He then entered the interim government (headed by Mahmud al-Muntasir), where he served as Foreign minister (March–December 1951), Health minister (March–April 1951) and Justice minister (April–December 1951).

Defense minister

He became minister for defense in the first cabinet formed after independence from December 1951 to February 1954.

He'd aimed during his term to establish the Libyan Army from the surviving members of the Senussi force, who fought with the western allies in World War II. He gave recruits military scholarships to Iraq and Turkey for military training, established the military academy in Benghazi.

Ambassador

He became the Libyan ambassador to Turkey and non-resident ambassador in Iraq from 1954 to 1961. He became ambassador to France 1961–1967.