Benghazi— Continuing armed clashes and instability in the Libyan capital Tripoli has pushed the House of Representatives’ Speaker to urge the establishment of new unified government, calling on the High State Council (HSC) for coordination in this regard. He blames authorities in Tripoli and the UN mission for instability there.
Speaker Agila Saleh blamed the Government of National Unity (GNU) headed by Abdulhamid Dbeibeh for causing the security deterioration that resulted to the extensive armed clashes and the loss of lives and private and public property.
“The insistence of the GNU to cling to power, its continued tampering with state institutions, its obstructing of the Parliament’s and the HSC’s efforts and those of the UNSMIL to end divisions in Libya, have led to dragging the country into a state of fratricidal fighting,” according to a statement by the Parliament’s spokesman on Wednesday.
“The GNU is nationally, legally, and morally responsible” for the ongoing events in Tripoli, the statement added, calling for the protection of civilians, their property and an immediate cessation of fighting.
The Speaker also blamed UNSMIL for “failing to exert sufficient international pressure on the GNU to relinquish power and hand it over to a unified government by means of withdrawing international recognition of its legitimacy.”
UNSMIL, said the statement, could have supported the Parliament and the HSC in forming a new government with a specific mandate to end institutional divisions and allowing the High National Elections Commission (HNEC) to organize general parliamentary and presidential elections, which it has failed to do.
Meanwhile, on Monday 12 May, the Speaker held a meeting with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Ms. Hanna Tetteh, and her Deputy, Ms. Stephanie Khoury in his office in Al-Qubba city in eastern Libya. Ms. Tetteh handed him the final Advisory Committee’s report and recommendations to review.
As a former judge and a lawyer, Mr. Saleh stressed during the meeting that the outcome of the Advisory Committee’s report “emphasized the need to form a new, unified government first, in order to move forward toward organizing presidential and parliamentary elections as soon as possible.”
He also said that the Parliament was committed to continued cooperation with UNSMIL and the international community as well as to all political agreements including the outcomes of the the 6+6 Committee, and everything that would end the political division.
The Speaker has called on Wednesday on members of the Parliament to meet in Benghazi next Monday, without specifying the agenda under discussion.