libya military

Libya Military - Libyan army cadets stand to attention before an audience that includes the prime minister, the commander of the Turkish training mission and other dignitaries during their graduation ceremony in Tripoli, Libya, February 8, 2022. (Photo AP)

Leaders and revolutionaries of forces supporting the Libyan army on Saturday condemned the election of Fathi Bashagha as head of the new government, a move that risks sparking a new power struggle in the war-torn nation.

Libya Military

In a statement read in Martyrs' Square in the capital Tripoli, they said that the support force denounces "the state of absurdity that contradicts the results of the political dialogue forum and wants the country to enter a new transition phase".

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The decisions taken by the House of Representatives (HoR) at its last meeting in Tobruk were not "according to fair and transparent procedures", they said.

They expressed "strong support for the parliamentary elections, the referendum on the constitution and the presidential elections as soon as possible," according to the statement.

The head of the High Council of State (HCS) Khalid al-Mishri, on the other hand, said that the appointment of Bashagha to replace Dbeibah fell out of the text after a "rare consensus" among parliamentary bodies on Saturday.

Incumbent Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, however, rejected the move, promising to remain in office until national elections are held.

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Both Bashagha and Dbeibah have the backing of rival armed groups in the Libyan capital. The position of the United Nations and the major powers will be crucial in determining the outcome of the struggle for the interim government after years of foreign involvement in the conflict. The United Nations continued to support Dbeibah after the House vote. However, the United Nations said on Friday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took note of the move by parliament to appoint Bashagha and a move by parliament together with the HCS to plan a revised path to the election.

Stephanie Williams, UN Special Adviser on Libya, said free and fair elections in Libya should be held "as soon as possible", meeting with both Dbeibah and Bashagha.

The polls in Libya were scheduled for December 24 but were postponed due to disagreements between political rivals. No new date for the vote has been agreed so far.

Libyans hope the elections will help end the armed conflict that has ruled the oil-rich country for years.

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You can cancel at any time. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The Libyan army said militias linked to renegade general Khalifa Haftar fired six Grad rockets at his headquarters west of the city of Sirte in the second breach of the armistice in three days.

In a statement, Libyan Army spokesman Colonel Mohammed Qununu said: "At 00:06 (22:06 GMT on Tuesday evening), our forces discovered an expected violation of the ceasefire declaration by fighting, the second of its kind in less than 72 hours."

He explained that the Libyan army is fully prepared and awaits instructions from Supreme Leader Fayez Al-Sarraj to address and respond to sources of fire at the appropriate time and place. On August 27, the Libyan army announced the first violation of the ceasefire, when Haftar's militia fired more than 12 missiles at the Libyan army camp, west of Sirte.

Haftar's militia spokesman Ahmed Al-Mismari said the ceasefire had not been violated, and said the purpose of the Libyan government's request was to cover up the Tripoli demonstrations.

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A ceasefire was reached on August 21, according to two statements by the Presidency Council of the opposing Libyan government and the Tobruk House of Representatives in support of Haftar, who is fighting the Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Al-Sarraj for legitimacy and authority. in the oil-rich country.

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. If the images have our credit, this license also applies to them. What does it mean? For other permissions, contact us. Renewed fighting between armed militias around Tripoli has seen 10 killed and more than 40 injured. Photo: Mahmud Turkia/AFP/Getty

Failure to hold a national reconciliation conference in Libya could pave the way for those who want a military solution to the country's divisions, warned Ghassan Salamé, the UN special envoy.

Time To Go Local In Libya

The conference, due to be held this month, is intended to be a precursor to this spring's presidential and parliamentary elections intended to end the divisions that have crippled the country since the ouster and assassination of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. .

Speaking at the UN security council, Salamé declined to set a date or location for the conference, instead saying he was working around the clock in the hope it would be held "in the coming weeks".

With fighting still raging in the country and political divisions established, Salamé said it was crucial that the conference takes place "under the right conditions, with the right people".

But he warned: "There will be those who seek to undermine the national conference and its results, particularly individuals who hope to delay elections so they can stay in place.

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“Without the concerted support of the international community, spoilers will sabotage the political process and undo any progress. Were this allowed, Libya's progress would set back years and almost certainly open the door for those who only believe that there is a martial solution to the Wounds of Libya".

The ability to hold the national conference was cut short by the cessation of four-month fighting in the capital Tripoli and internal political infighting between key institutions, notably the House of Representatives and the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) . ).

Clashes between armed militias around Tripoli left 10 dead and more than 40 injured. There are also growing divisions within the UN-recognized GNA that could fuel some of the fighting in Tripoli.

Salamé said: “We can fight the fires, but in the end there will be a hell that cannot be put out, so we must go further and address the underlying dysfunctionalities of the Libyan state. The political stalemate has been sustained by a complex web of vested interests, a broken legal framework and the theft of Libya's vast wealth."

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A man holds up a poster of Eastern Libya's military commander Khalifa Haftar during a demonstration in Benghazi. Photo: Esam Al-Fetori/Reuters

Salamé has been reluctant to identify those he believes are holding the country back, but the United Nations has already imposed sanctions on some militia leaders.

Libya, like many countries in the Middle East and North Africa, suffers from external actors who intervene to encourage violence or exert influence.

In the impoverished and largely lawless southwest, Marshal Khalifa Haftar has launched a military campaign that his spokesman says is seeking to stabilize the key oil field and defeat forces supplied by Turkey and Qatar.

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In an attempt to balance the gloominess of the political section of his report, Salamé said he also has some green shoots, including the appointment of new ministers, the stabilization of the currency, a reduction in commodity prices of up to 40%, the end of the code to access bank funds, increase oil production to over 1 million barrels a day, transfer control of prisons from private groups and launch a plan to improve Tripoli's security.

But he admitted that much of law enforcement remained in the hands of armed groups rather than professional security officers. He also failed to mention reports that a 2019 budget for the Libyan government had not yet been agreed due to disputes over spending priorities between the central bank and the government. On April 26, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar's plane landed at Benina airport, which ended. speculation about his poor health or his death after being hospitalized in Paris for two weeks. At 75, Marshal Haftar is considered the strong man of eastern Libya. He heads the so-called Libyan National Army. This army is actually a group of militia revolving around a core of a regular army representing a strength of approximately 25,000 men. It's not a solid, coherent block. Each militia has its own agenda and ambitions. It is not uncommon for LNA units to come into conflict with each other for various reasons (land ownership, arrest of one or more of their members, smuggling, etc.). The cohesion of the whole is so fragile that events such as the recent hospitalization of Marshal Haftar in Paris and the uncertainty about his state of health threaten at any moment to violently divide this army.

Marshal Khalifa Haftar's regular ground forces consist of several dozen units: two mechanized infantry brigades, one tank brigade, three artillery brigades, one special forces brigade, two "Rada Deterrence Forces" bringing together different brigades and a hundred units more or less the size of a brigade. type, infantry battalions, light battalions, border guards, security forces - totaling some 7,000 members. In September 2017, the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Ageela Saleh, ordered the creation of four military zones to cover the central part and more