3 yıl önce

Libya: Eastern Mediterranean deal with Ankara in Tripoli's interest

Libya's designated interim PM Abdulhamid Dbeibeh made the statement during his address to the parliament as he urged lawmakers to back his proposed unity government.

Reuters

Libya's new interim PM Abdulhamid Dbeibeh gestures as he speaks in parliament in Sirte, Libya, March 9, 2021.

Libya's designated interim prime minister, Abdulhamid Dbeibeh has said the Turkish-Libyan maritime agreement in the eastern Mediterranean is in the interest of his country.

This came in response to a question about the agreement in a parliament session held in Sirte for a vote of confidence on the new interim government led by Dbeibeh.

"The Libyan-Turkish agreement in the eastern Mediterranean is in the interest of the state of Libya," Dbeibeh said, adding, "Libya has gained a fine share of its right to [natural] gas" after the agreement.

On November 27, 2019, the internationally recognised Libyan government signed a security cooperation agreement and demarcation of a maritime border with Turkey.

Dbeibeh arrived in Sirte on Monday to present his ministerial outline to the House of Representatives, which included 26 ministerial portfolios, in addition to six state ministers.

Government vote looms

Libya's PM Dbeibeh, urged the long-divided parliament to back his proposed unity government as it prepared for a confidence vote.

The vote could take place on Tuesday, the deputy parliament speaker said, though an official speaking anonymously said intense talks continued and it may be delayed.

The parliament, which split between western and eastern factions along with most state institutions as the country fractured soon after the 2014 election, is meeting for the first time in years for the session in the frontline city of Sirte.

Though the UN-backed process appears to offer the clearest path in years to end Libya's decade of chaos and violence, it has also been dogged by allegations of corruption, influence peddling and the presence of foreign mercenaries.

Meanwhile, Dbeibeh's 35-member cabinet list, distributed over the weekend after weeks of intense negotiating to keep all Libya's varied factions on board, was still being amended on Tuesday, he said.

The session is taking place in Sirte's Ouagadougou Conference Centre, built by its late leader Muammar Gaddafi as a glossy gift to his hometown but damaged in fighting after his downfall and used by Daesh when it ruled the city in 2015.

This year it has functioned as headquarters of a military formed by Libya's two main warring sides and the rival administrations they back to oversee their ceasefire.

The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), which is recognised by the United Nations, last year repulsed a 14-month assault on the capital by warlord Khalifa Haftar's eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA), leading to the truce.

Addressing parliament, Dbeibeh decried the continued presence of mercenaries and other foreign forces in Libya and said his government's goals of unifying state institutions and holding an election planned for December 24, if realised, would be big achievements.

Both those ends were written into the mandate for his interim unity government by 75 delegates convened by the UN in meetings in Tunis and Geneva to plot a path to elections.

However, the process, in which delegates voted on rival leadership candidates, led to allegations of vote buying. The issue was not raised in Tuesday's parliament session.