News / North Africa

Libyan sides must help peaceful power transition: Pres. Council

Sunday, 13 March 2016 6:07 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 13 March 2016 6:06 AM ]

A handout picture released on February 4, 2016 shows a Presidential Council meeting headed by Libyan businessman Fayez al-Sarraj (C) in Tripoli. ©AFP

Libya’s UN-backed Presidential Council has called on all institutions in the crisis-hit country to help facilitate a peaceful transfer of power to the interim unity government it proposed last month.

In a statement released on Saturday, the Tunis-based council, which is tasked with guiding the nation through a transition to end the political chaos in Libya, further urged the global community to stop dealing with those Libyan parties that seek to hinder the formation of a unity government.

The council urged “all Libyan sovereign and public institutions and the heads of financial bodies to start communicating immediately with the Government of National Accord so as to hand over power in a peaceful and orderly manner.”

Last month, the council nominated the Government of National Accord, also known as the unity government, as part of the Libyan Political Agreement, which was signed in Morocco on 17 December 2015.

However, the recognition of the proposed cabinet has been held up as the eastern House of Representatives (HOR), has so far failed to approve it.

Many hope that Libya’s new administration, if endorsed by the legislature, would end the chaos gripping the oil-rich African state.

Elsewhere, the presidential council statement appealed to the international community “to stop dealing with any executive power that does not follow the Government of National Accord.”

A man pulls a wheelbarrow past destroyed buildings after clashes between military forces loyal to Libya’s eastern government and Daesh terrorists, in Benghazi, on February 28, 2016. ©Reuters

Since August 2014, when militias seized the capital Tripoli, Libya has had two parliaments and two governments with one, the General National Congress (GNC), run by the rebels in the capital, and the internationally-recognized administration in Tobruk.

Taking advantage of the political chaos, the Daesh terrorist group took control of Libya’s northern port city of Sirte in June 2015, almost four months after it announced its presence in the city, and made it the first city to be ruled by the militant group outside of Iraq and Syria.

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