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TRIPOLI, Libya — Libya’s legislature handed a no-confidence vote to Prime Minister Ali Zeidan on Tuesday in a yet another jolt to the oil-rich nation’s crumbling political stability.

Libya’s elected General National Congress voted to oust Zeidan a day after the government’s weak security forces failed to stop a North Korean-flagged oil tanker from departing Libya’s eastern shore with an unauthorized $36 million cargo of crude oil.

Less than three years after the fall of dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Libya has been riven by increasingly violent political animosities as powerful militias, aligned with rival political factions, have struggled to exert control over key government offices, territory and — significantly — the country’s vast oil resources.

Federalist fighters seeking autonomy for eastern Libya have laid siege to some of the country’s key oil wells and ports, effectively paralyzing exports for the past six months.

The weekend docking of the North Korean tanker marked the first independent sale of oil by a non-state body, threatening to escalate regional and tribal tensions into a full-fledged war.

Zeidan threatened to use force if the ship tried to leave. But after a three-day stand-off between the eastern rebels and government-allied forces, the rebels said Tuesday that The Morning Glory had entered international waters.

“We don’t care what the GNC does with Zeidan. They can do what they like,” said Senussi El-Megrabi, a spokesman for rebel commander Ibrahim al-Jathran. “We have nothing to do with them.”

Libya’s deeply divided Congress also designated the country’s defense minister to take over for Zeidan for the next 15 days until the body selects a new prime minister, state media reported. That person would become the country’s fifth prime minister in just over two years.

Megrabi said Tuesday that rebel forces had already repelled an attack by Misrata fighters.

“We are expecting another tanker to Heriga port,” he added. “But I don’t know when exactly that will be.”