Libya parliament sworn in a rival firm on Thursday in an attempt to oust governmentune unity move which aroused fears of another grand schism in the war-torn country.
The assembly, based in eastern Libya, had charged former Fathi Bashagha, Minister of Interior last month with forming a government.
It raised the prospect of a showdown with the western administration based in Tripoli of Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah, who refused to give in power to all but one elected government.
And in a sign of growing tensions, Bashagha accused Dbeibah government of closing down the country’s airspace and declared that an “army group”had detained three ministers-in- waiting to prevent them from reaching the ceremony on Thursday.
“I condemn the unjustified escalation of certain parties who prevented some ministers from taking the oath in“, Bashagha told the assembly.
Insisting that son administration “seek peace through words and deeds”, he urged the group to release the ministers – Hafed Gaddur, Saleha al-Toumi and Faraj Khalil – respectively Bashagha’s candidates for foreign affairsculture and teaching positions technique.
Libya, which plunged into violence after the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has experienced a year and one half of relative peace since historic shutdown in 2020-fire complete a major battle between Eastern and Western factions.
Dbeibah was appointed year there is in the frame of UN-led peace efforts and had been given a mandate to lead the country in the December 2020 elections.
But the polls were postponed indefinitely in the midst of sharp divisions over their legal basis and the presence of contentious candidates, including from the East military coup leader General Khalifa Haftar.
Last month, the assembly appointed Bashagha – who, like Dbeibah, originally from powerful city of Misrata – to lead a new government.
The 59-year-old former says a fighter pilot in son inaugural speech on Thursday that “some sides want hanging out us in war and fighting – but we won’t let them, and we won’t knock down a single drop of some blood.”
But he insisted that he would govern from Tripoli “in force of the law.”
Tuesday, the parliament had given son cabinet support offered by Bashagha, in a confidence vote Dbeibah sentenced as “manifestly” fraudulent, lack of quorum and with some deputies counted as voters in favor even if they were absent.
UN chief Antonio Guterres office said Wednesday that he was “concerned over reports that (the vote) below of expected standards of transparency and procedures and acts included of bullying before the session.”
And hours before taking the oath in on Thursday, Bashagha’s Choice for Economy and Trade Minister Jamal Salem Shaaban has resigned, criticizing the vote as lacking transparency and circumventing parliamentary procedures.
“It would not be an honor to be part of of a government that would bring war and destruction and take the capital down a dark tunnel,” he said. in a video carried by locals media.
The world powers had placed great hope on elections as way of draw a line under a decade of violence in Libya.
The UN summit official in the country has called Libya’s political elite political “dinosaurs” clinging to power preventing them from taking place.
Peter Millet, a former The British ambassador to the country, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in February that instead of an east-west split, the main division now “is between the Libyans people, who want elections and the political elite, who do not do it.”
Dbeibah has repeatedly said that son government would hold elections in June, while within the framework of a roadmap adopted by parliament and supported by Bashagha, they would take place early next year.
Turkey has also frequently reiterated his support to Libya’s stability and reconciliation efforts in the war-torn nation.
Turkey and Libya have seen their ties grow closer in in recent years, particularly after the signing of the maritime security and delimitation pacts in November 2019, at the same time with Turkey’s aid to help the legitimate Libyan government to push back Haftar’s forces.
Libya parliament sworn in a rival firm on Thursday in an attempt to oust governmentune unity move which aroused fears of another grand schism in the war-torn country.
The assembly, based in eastern Libya, had charged former Fathi Bashagha, Minister of Interior last month with forming a government.
It raised the prospect of a showdown with the western administration based in Tripoli of Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah, who refused to give in power to all but one elected government.
And in a sign of growing tensions, Bashagha accused Dbeibah government of closing down the country’s airspace and declared that an “army group”had detained three ministers-in- waiting to prevent them from reaching the ceremony on Thursday.
“I condemn the unjustified escalation of certain parties who prevented some ministers from taking the oath in“, Bashagha told the assembly.
Insisting that son administration “seek peace through words and deeds”, he urged the group to release the ministers – Hafed Gaddur, Saleha al-Toumi and Faraj Khalil – respectively Bashagha’s candidates for foreign affairsculture and teaching positions technique.
Libya, which plunged into violence after the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has experienced a year and one half of relative peace since historic shutdown in 2020-fire complete a major battle between Eastern and Western factions.
Dbeibah was appointed year there is in the frame of UN-led peace efforts and had been given a mandate to lead the country in the December 2020 elections.
But the polls were postponed indefinitely in the midst of sharp divisions over their legal basis and the presence of contentious candidates, including from the East military coup leader General Khalifa Haftar.
Last month, the assembly appointed Bashagha – who, like Dbeibah, originally from powerful city of Misrata – to lead a new government.
The 59-year-old former says a fighter pilot in son inaugural speech on Thursday that “some sides want hanging out us in war and fighting – but we won’t let them, and we won’t knock down a single drop of some blood.”
But he insisted that he would govern from Tripoli “in force of the law.”
Tuesday, the parliament had given son cabinet support offered by Bashagha, in a confidence vote Dbeibah sentenced as “manifestly” fraudulent, lack of quorum and with some deputies counted as voters in favor even if they were absent.
UN chief Antonio Guterres office said Wednesday that he was “concerned over reports that (the vote) below of expected standards of transparency and procedures and acts included of bullying before the session.”
And hours before taking the oath in on Thursday, Bashagha’s Choice for Economy and Trade Minister Jamal Salem Shaaban has resigned, criticizing the vote as lacking transparency and circumventing parliamentary procedures.
“It would not be an honor to be part of of a government that would bring war and destruction and take the capital down a dark tunnel,” he said. in a video carried by locals media.
The world powers had placed great hope on elections as way of draw a line under a decade of violence in Libya.
The UN summit official in the country has called Libya’s political elite political “dinosaurs” clinging to power preventing them from taking place.
Peter Millet, a former The British ambassador to the country, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in February that instead of an east-west split, the main division now “is between the Libyans people, who want elections and the political elite, who do not do it.”
Dbeibah has repeatedly said that son government would hold elections in June, while within the framework of a roadmap adopted by parliament and supported by Bashagha, they would take place early next year.
Turkey has also frequently reiterated his support to Libya’s stability and reconciliation efforts in the war-torn nation.
Turkey and Libya have seen their ties grow closer in in recent years, particularly after the signing of the maritime security and delimitation pacts in November 2019, at the same time with Turkey’s aid to help the legitimate Libyan government to push back Haftar’s forces.