Political impasse pushes Libya towards military clashes

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Signs of possible military clashes in Libya arising from the political impasse have led in recent days to demonstrations threatening to plunge the country back into security chaos.

Indeed, the option of war seems to be the only way left to the Libyan protagonists to deal with the issue of the executive in the absence of prospects for a settlement to resolve the issue of the two governments.

The continued tension amid failure to revive the electoral process and resort to the ballot box to decide who governs Libyans indicate the direction in which the country is heading.

Thus, armed groups affiliated to the prime minister appointed by the House of Representatives (Parliament), Fathi Bachagha, organized on Tuesday a military parade on the outskirts of the city of Misrata (220 km east of Tripoli).

Pictures showing military convoys, forces called "Brigade 217", named "Legitimacy Protection Force, which supports the Libyan government" of Mr. Bachagha, have been published on social media.

Internet users posted videos showing part of the military parade, assuring that the Brigade, which is led by Colonel Salem Juha, includes 85 battalions from the city of Misrata, where the two prime ministers come from.

Earlier, huge military movements of convoys of vehicles loaded with military equipment left the Jebal Al-Gharbi area towards the capital, Tripoli, to support the armed groups backing the national unity government of Prime Minister Abdelhamid Al-Dbaiba.

On the other side, an armed convoy loaded with medium and heavy weapons arrived at the headquarters of the Western Joint Operations Room, in support of Major General Osama Al-Jouwaili's forces, at his headquarters in the April 7 Camp, south of Tripoli.

These movements coincided with the deployment of armed cars with anti-aircraft guns and other armed groups belonging to the sacked former director of military intelligence and head of the joint operations room, General Osama Al-Jouwaili, in the south-western region of Tripoli.

General Al-Jouwaili, who supports the prime minister appointed by the parliament, had already carried out an attack in Tripoli on Saturday against the camp of the Mobile Force supporting the prime minister of the national unity government, Al-Dbaiba, further fuelling tension.

The attack came in the wake of a verbal escalation by Al-Jouwaili against the government of national unity and after the failure of a meeting that should bring together the armed formations in the Libyan capital and the western region of the country supporting both sides to ease the tension and commit to refrain from further escalations that could aggravate the situation.

The mobilization of forces on both sides was preceded by armed clashes in Tripoli, the latest of which took place on 22 July and left 16 people dead, including six civilians, and 52 others injured.

This deterioration of the security situation adds to the worsening of the political impasse.

But it seems that it is the language of war that prevails so far over any other consideration, according to observers of the Libyan scene who point out that a military confrontation between the two competing governments is inevitable.

This war logic was also reflected in the preparations for the celebration of the 82nd anniversary of the founding of the Libyan army, commemorated Tuesday in Tripoli, marked by the parade of military forces and units although the emphasis was placed on the importance of unifying the army away from political strife and that it be at the service of the protection of the homeland, the borders and the sovereignty of Libya.

The Prime Minister of the National Unity Government and Minister of Defence, Abdelhamid Al-Dbaiba, in a speech on the occasion of the celebration of the 82nd anniversary of the founding of the Libyan army, called on "those who brandish war in contravention of their military duties to learn from their past experiences.

"We must move our country to stability, and our motto is security, peace, science and work."

He urged everyone to turn to the realization of the common dream of leading to the realization of the national agenda that guarantees the peaceful transfer of power through elections.

As a counterpart to Mr Al-Dbaiba's balanced speech, there is a certain loss of patience on the part of his rival, Bachagha, who no longer implicitly excludes the use of tares to start exercising his functions from Tripoli.

Prime Minister-designate of the House of Representatives Fathi Bachagha launched a violent diatribe against the Prime Minister of the national unity government, Al-Dbaiba, assuring "to hold the outgoing government, and its leader personally, nationally, morally and legally responsible for every drop of blood shed due to its insistence on ruling by force and without legitimacy.

Speaking in a video recorded and released on Tuesday, Bachagha added that "six months and we are reaching out for peace and for peace, and the government is responding with escalation, threats, intimidation, terrorism, killings and the prosecution of all opponents".

He stressed that he was determined "to embody and consolidate legitimacy, assuring that "he would not neglect the gains of democracy, freedom, justice and the peaceful alternation of power".

The Prime Minister-designate added from the central city of Sirte where his government is based: "We did not use force, peace or threats to exercise our political rights. We did not fight until we were forced to fight. We fought dictatorship, tyranny, extremism and terrorism for freedom and democracy, and we are working to build a state that preserves the dignity of the citizen and guarantees him a decent life."

He is joined by his political ally, the head of the eastern-based Libyan National Army, Marshal Khalifa Haftar, who said in a speech in the eastern city of Tobruk on Monday in the presence of sheikhs, dignitaries, residents and youths of the city that the Libyan people "will not allow the chair worshippers (power)" to deprive them of their will.

He added, quoted by the newspaper "Al-Wasat" that "every time Libyans hope for the good, the results surprise them with the closing of the political horizon and the return to square one, to the point that it is no longer a secret for Libyans that reaching a global consensus between the conflicting parties that are at the forefront of the scene leading to a global solution, is a fantasy.

There is no need to blame one party and not the other, and there is nothing that can bring relief, except for the people to say their last word, as soon as possible, to say in vain stop the contempt, stop the empty promises, stop underestimating the aspirations and hopes of the citizen, and manipulating the homeland and its security, plundering its resources and wealth.

Indeed, the horizons are completely blocked as to the existence of prospects for a short or medium term solution to the political impasse in the country due to the absence of any initiative that could lead to a way out of the crisis.

The organization of general elections, which figured prominently in the roadmap of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum for 24 December last year, has been postponed due to flawed electoral laws adopted unilaterally by the parliament.

Today, the holding of parliamentary and presidential elections is still hampered by the elaboration of a consensual constitutional basis to serve as a legal framework in the absence of a constitution, due to the persistent differences between the parliament and the High Council of State on the eligibility of binationals and the military.

The failure to overcome these disagreements was followed by the abrupt departure of the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Libya, Stephanie Williams, who had overseen the negotiations between the two chambers and the mediation efforts in Libya, further aggravating the stalemate in the political process, which is now completely blocked.

The Libyan parties have stuck to their positions without making any concessions or compromises in order to overcome these points of divergence.

The acting head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Raisedon Zenenga, has been in contact with Libyan officials, in particular the Presidential Council, the Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, and civil society components, reiterating the UN's continued efforts to support Libyans, but without any concrete steps towards bringing the protagonists together to discuss a solution to the crisis.

 -0- PANA BY/IS/BBA/RA 11Aug2022