By Goodhope Dlangamandla
29:08:2022

The UN has called for an immediate stop to hostilities in Libya following a day of deadly clashes between political factions in Tripoli’s capital.

Talking to Radio Islam International, the managing director of the International Interest Global Risk and Intelligence Company, Sami Hamdi, said there was a lull in the fighting in Libya over the past year primarily due to the Turkish intervention. This established a military equilibrium that essentially ruined any possibility of a military solution to the situation in Libya, as Libya’s factions were dragged, kicking and screaming, into a political dialogue process in which they did not want to engage.

He explained that they believed that the political dialogue and process would not achieve their aim of domination in Libya. And as a result, the parties were forced to agree to hold elections at the end of the year and moved to approve a new temporary international recognised government that is led by the current Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and as they had anticipated the Libyan factions collectively agree that elections were a bad thing.

“They did not want to hold the elections and ensured that no environment emerged in which would be conducive to elections, and the deadline passed. And then we had this sort of legal limbo whether the current government in Tripoli is still legitimate given that its mandate was only supposed to last one year and its role or purpose was to organise elections,” said Hamdi.

He added that in this context, the rival militias in the east of Libya united and requested that the House of Representatives appoint a new prime minister, Fathi Bashagha, who now has formed his government and is essentially setting up a parallel government to that of the internationally recognised government in Tripoli.

However, Fathi Bashagha cannot win enough international backing to recognise his government due to resistance from the malicious in Tripoli.

“So over the past three months, four months, what Bashagha has been doing is he’s been sending his allies to Ankara in Turkey. Turkey is the gatekeeper of Tripoli, which is the guardian of the capital city of Libya, Turkey whose forces and military bases are around Tripoli in Libya to try to convince Turkey in light of Turkey, and UAE reconciliation, to say to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, look, we know that you entered Libya because you are worried about your maritime interest. We will guarantee your maritime interest, and in exchange, please turn a blind eye to our attempt to the military,” he said.

“Traditionally, three months ago, you would have said that Turkey firmly supports the internationally recognised government, but over the weekend now, nobody is particularly sure. And I think that when it comes to Turkey, while it supports the institution of an internationally recognised government, which does not mean that it supports the current prime minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah. Instead, what we’re seeing in the international powers is a shift in alliances in that, while France and Egypt remain firmly in support of the return of authoritarianism and dictatorship. The rest of the powers are sort of negotiating between themselves to find a settlement in which Libya is divided between different spheres of influence, and the focus is on trying to extract its resources and leave the Libyan to squabble and fight between themselves,” concluded Hamdi.

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