BENGHAZI: A British envoy visited Libya’s parliament at its new seat in the eastern town of Tobruk yesterday in a show of support against a rival assembly set up by armed groups who seized the capital Tripoli last month.
Senior officials and the elected House of Representatives moved to the remote east of Libya when Tripoli fell to an alliance of armed factions from the western city of Misrata in August after a long battle with rival groups. The fighting and lawlessness also prompted most countries, including Britain, to close their diplomatic missions in Libya.
“We recognise the legitimacy of the Libyan parliament,” Britain’s Libya Special Envoy Jonathan Powell said in a televised news conference from Tobruk. Western powers like Britain worry Libya will turn into a failed state that could flood Europe with migrants and becomes a safe haven for militant Islamists.
The House of Representatives was elected in June in a vote marked by a very low turnout. The assembly’s previous name, the General National Congress, was scrapped as many Libyans associated with political infighting and chaos. Now the alliance controlling Tripoli says that, together with a group of former lawmakers, reinstated the GNC.
Powell said there would be no military intervention as demanded by some Libyans tired of fighting between armed groups. Libya’s conflicts could be solved diplomatically, he said, without elaborating.
Addressing the same news conference, First Deputy Speaker Mohammed Ali Shuaib said Libya expected the international community to help it build up army and state institutions.
REUTERS
