Saudi Arabia’s 70-year-old kafala sponsorship labor system will end on 14 March, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development said in a tweet. Under the initiative announced last November, foreign employees will no longer need their work sponsor’s permission to change jobs, travel abroad or leave the country permanently.

The move portends the end of a musical trope. Check out our favourites, including the (accidental?) shtick of Bait Kafeel and the more pungent I’m not afraid of my kafeel.

Libya’s parliament approved yesterday its first interim government in years, which will be tasked with overseeing the election of a unified government in December as part of a UN peace plan, Reuters reports. It was the House’s first full session since 2014, in a country that remains deeply divided between forces led by General Khalifa Haftar in the East, and the Government of National Accord. Egypt welcomed the vote of confidence and is looking to cooperate with the interim government during Libya’s transitional phase, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Also worth knowing this morning:

• Qatar has sent its first oil shipment to the UAE since resuming ties with the Arab Quartet earlier this year, Bloomberg reports. The shipment was purchased by state-owned Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC), and carried 700k of Qatari condensate.

WHO’S TALKING-

Military and security cooperation between Egypt and France were on the agenda for President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Director of the French external intelligence agency DGSE Bernard Emié, who met in Cairo yesterday along with intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, according to an Ittihadiya statement.

Developments on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and Egypt’s ties with the EU were the main talking points for Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell in a phone call yesterday, according to a statement.