This was an initial proposal, with the same colors in a slightly boring horizontal triband:
Another proposal rearranged it a bit, but was discarded as too similar to the flag of Tanganyika, which seems quite reasonable, since they did not know that problem would be short-lived:
In the end they went for the saltire, which seems like a great choice, creating a more unique and interesting design.
Damn you Libyan revolution. We want our green rectangle back.
Yea, my first reflex was “What about Libya?”, not realizing the flag changed in 2011 already.