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| Africa North |
| ‘Unified’ Libyan army on table at Tunis meeting |
| 2016-07-18 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The UN are set to host a second day of talks in Libya Sunday with the aim of creating a "unified" army in a country wracked by internal divisions and a holy warrior threat. The organization brokered a power-sharing deal last year to form a Government of National Accord (GNA), but the body is still struggling to assert its authority. "All Libya’s problems today are tied up to the security issue," said Martin Kobler, head of the UN’s support mission in the country. The goal of the talks would be "a unified Libyan army under the command of the presidential council," he said Saturday, according to an Arabic translation. "Libya cannot be united as long as it has several armies," he said at the end of the first day’s meeting, which also touched on humanitarian issues. The GNA arrived in the capital three months ago, but a rival political authority based in the east is refusing to cede power until Libya’s elected parliament passes a repeatedly delayed vote of confidence. The controversial leader General Khalifa Haftar ... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... controls forces loyal to this authority. "I want to meet General Haftar, to see and understand his position. I contact him every week to arrange a meeting, but so far he has refused," Kobler said. The presidential council would meet on Monday and Tuesday with "influential security parties" for further talks on a unified army, he said, without specifying who these parties would be. |
| Posted by:Fred |