Libyan Rivals Vie for Roles in New Interim Government
Arab World
Asharq Al-Awsat
Potential leaders of a new Libyan interim government joined in competing blocs on Thursday to seek backing from participants in UN-backed talks after publicly auditioning for top roles. The process is part of a UN plan that envisages national elections at the end of the year as a political solution to Libya’s decade of chaos. Although the process represents the biggest peacemaking effort for years, it is fraught with risk as heavily armed groups watch their allies and rivals vying for political power. Late on Thursday masked fighters deployed in pickup trucks in central Tripoli, setting up checkpoints, a Reuters witness said, with participants in the UN process to vote for the rival slates of candidates on Friday. Candidates for the three positions in a presidency council and for the post of prime minister have been interviewed in live broadcast sessions throughout the week. On one ticket, eastern-based parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh, a candidate to lead the presidency council, has joined with Government of National Accord (GNA) Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha, seeking to be prime minister, Osama Juwaili, a western military commander, and Abdul Majeed Seif al-Nasr, from the south. Some Libyans have criticized the choice of combined leadership tickets as the mechanism for selecting the interim government, seeing it as a means for powermongers to cling onto control. Candidates have promised not to run for office in the national elections planned for Dec. 24 and to step down from any other posts they hold if they win office through the UN process. In Tripoli cafes this week, customers appeared jaded with a process dominated by familiar figures. “What is happening in Geneva is the recycling of some names and papers in a way that satisfies the international community,” said Aseel al-Mahdwi, a financial manager at a private sector company. “I have no hope and I think tension and clashes will return,” he added, according to Reuters. The United Nations Security Council on Thursday approved a small advance team to start work in Libya on a ceasefire monitoring mechanism. UN monitors The Security Council instructed Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to deploy ceasefire monitors to war-torn Libya. "As they examine your recommendation for an amended mandate for the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), the members of the Security Council request that you establish and deploy swiftly an advance team to Libya," the council said in a letter to Guterres that was seen by AFP. It said it expected within 45 days to receive reporting on preparations undertaken by the advance team and practical proposals for amending the mandate of the UN mission in Libya. In a report late last year, Guterres called for the creation of an unarmed observer group for Libya, made up of civilians and retired military people from countries of the African Union, the European Union and the Arab League. He did not say how big it should be. Deployment of ceasefire observers is being carried out with the approval of the parties in Libya. The advance team of the observer force is expected to comprise around 30 people, diplomats said. Under the ceasefire agreement reached by the warring parties, international observers are supposed to monitor the truce and oversee the departure of foreign fighters from Libya. These number some 20,000, the UN says. Mercenaries in Libya include several thousand each from Syria and Sudan and a thousand from Chad, a diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity. In late January, the United States under new President Joe Biden called for the immediate withdrawal of Russian and Turkish forces from Libya, after a deadline for them to leave was ignored. Turkey had brought in Syrian mercenaries to prop up the GNA against an offensive by the Libyan National Army. Russia denies having any military personnel in Libya.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2786181/libyan-rivals-vie-roles-new-interim-government
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