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Benghazi - A committee tasked with writing a constitution for Libya voted in favour of a draft, paving the way for parliament to approve a referendum and causing uproar among opponents.

Critics, including secessionists and people in favour of the country's 1951 constitution, called for a redo of Saturday's vote.

Protesters broke into the committee's building in the eastern town of Bayda, according to two committee members, who said they called on the committee to reconvene Sunday. It was not immediately clear whether the committee met again.

Committee members opposing the decision issued a signed statement saying that voters failed to consider amendments proposed by opponents to articles in the draft.

Amraja Noah, a committee member from the eastern city of Tobruk, said protesters stormed the building to stop the session, forcing the members to rush the vote.

Chaos

He said 44 members attended the session and 42 voted in favor of passing the draft.

An opponent of the decision, Abdelkader Kadura, a committee member from Benghazi, expressed skepticism about the legitimacy of the voting.

"This serves a small minority and a certain geographical area," he said, referring to members who voted in favour.

The 60-member committee has been assigned to work on a draft constitution since 2014.

Libya descended into chaos following the 2011 civil war that toppled and killed dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The oil-rich nation is now split between rival governments and militias.

Libya's internationally-recognised parliament is based in the east and allied with the powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter.

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Libya committee votes in favour of constitutional draft | News24 - News24

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Since the revolution in 2011, which was supported militarily by the United States, Libya has been ruled by divided governments. Today there are actually three governments attempting to govern simultaneously, one of which the Government of National Salvation I serve as prime minister. The lack of political unity has made our fight for stability and security against extremists that much harder.

Indeed, whatever hopes we have for democracy are at risk; representative government is a new concept here and it will not be legitimate in the eyes of our exhausted country unless we have functional institutions and can protect our people. To that end, it is crucial that America not forget us, but help us toward a political solution that reconciles our differences.

My first priority as prime minister has been to rid Libya of extremist elements, be it ISIS, Daesh, al Qaeda, Ansar al Sharia or whatever is the name of the day. As I have said on many occasions, fundamentalism and terrorism should be fought, as they betray the principles of Islam and the promise of a free and peaceful Libya. President Trump has recently said that he is prepared to support Libya in its fight against extremism and we welcome that and are ready to partner in that fight.

We have created and trained special teams at the Misrata air base who report directly to me and have been deployed on countless missions against the terrorists and fought bravely in the successful purge of Daesh from Sirte. We have also established the Counterterrorsim Service (CTS) which has exchanged important and crucial information and data with the U.S. and European intelligence agencies.

But as we fight, we must also renew our efforts to bring together a national unity government. Here, the international community has failed us. Immediately following the revolution, the U.S. and our European friends were cheered in the public squares of our towns and villages. But the task of building a functioning pluralistic government for people who suffered under a brutal dictatorship for generations was gravely underestimated.

The international community at that time faced its own problems of slow growth and political uncertainty and didnt engage Libya with the strong financial, political, and military support we needed.

The chaos that ensued has implications beyond our borders, best illustrated by the immigration crisis of thousands from other countries beset by conflict and poverty transiting through Libya to Europe. Our inability to prevent this transit is simply due to our lack of a single unified and strong central government. The internal Libyan problem has become an international nightmare for Europe.

For these reasons, I am prepared to support international efforts to help us bring together a national unity government that takes into consideration the principles behind the revolution and brings fairness and opportunities for all regions and societal segments of our great country.

While this is no easy task, it must be done for the alternative of further chaos and fighting can no longer be tolerated or allowed. I do not desire or seek a role in this unity government, but rather to encourage it and to be a part of a new generation of Libyan leadership that is drawn from and returns to ordinary citizen life.

My caution to the U.S. and our other friends is that the unity solution cannot be perceived as a government imposed on us by the outside. Libya needs the support of indigenous and impartial broad-based groups such as the Libyan Political Agreement Committee that brings together leaders from all aspects of our society.

The LPA supports no political party or candidate but seeks to bring people together in common cause. We must be reminded that democracy is not simply an election; it needs to be nurtured by non-governmental organizations that work on behalf of Libya as well as by an independent press, an independent judiciary and civilian control over a national military.

Indeed, these features are the building blocks of a stable, functional, self-sufficient democracy. Unity will allow us at last to develop a national economic strategy that touches all segments of the population. One of my first tasks as prime minister was to establish the Strategic Projects Committee. This consisted of leaders from many industry sectors though out the whole of Libya.

This committee is charged with outlining and describing the immediate and necessary commercial opportunities needed to be exploited on urgent basis such as power generation, road and bridge repair, health and education infrastructure rebuilds and more. But we cannot encourage it, oversee it, finance it with a fragmented government. Whats more we need a single sovereign nation to repatriate much of our frozen and stolen financial resources and to attract capital investments, especially from the U.S.

Mr. Trump was right to focus on security as his top priority in Libya; terrorism and the ideas that inspire it are a transnational phenomenon. But we cant merely kill our way through the problem. We need to present a credible alternative to the nihilism of extremists, namely, a successful experiment in governance that can bring more and more people into the fold and eliminate the grievances that terrorists prey on. Keeping Libya on the U.S. dashboard has the potential to give democracy a beachhead in a crucial region.

Khalifa Ghwell is the prime minister of Libya.

Read more from the original source:
Keeping Libya on the US dashboard - Washington Times

As the Islamic State terror network loses territory across Iraq and Syria, analysts and experts assert that the terrorist outfit is increasingly capitalizing on the chaos of Libya, positioning the country as its point of resurgence.

The black-clad jihadist outfit is believed to be regrouping and recruiting in the rural regions south of the main east-to-west coastal highway and in the far-west town of Sabratha, which is poised just 60 miles from the Tunisian border, since being run out of its Libyan caliphate capital of Sirte late last year.

The majority of their fighting force comes from Tunisia, so Sabratha is also a growing center, prominent terrorism analyst Robert Young Pelton told Fox News. ISIS in Libya can regenerate quickly.

Robert Young Pelton in the city of Sirte as soldiers belonging to the "Bunyan Marsous" - Misrata militias who fought in Sirte to run ISIS out of its Libyan stronghold.

Col. Ahmed Almesmari, spokesperson for the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), told Fox News that ISIS first appeared in Libya at the end of 2013, even before its dominance in Iraq, borne out of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated militias and Al Qaeda dissidents in Libyas eastern port city of Derna near the Egyptian border.

Col. Ahmed Almesmari, spokesman for the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA).

But over time, ISIS has seemingly moved its operatives from the eastern Egyptian border and now appears to be clustering closer to the western Tunisian side. According to Almesmari, the terror faction has recently established camps around 25 miles east of the town of Bani Waleed, as well as south of Sirte.

Mohamed Ghasri, spokesperson and senior commander of the Mistrata-based al-Bunyam al-Marsous militia, which waged bloody battles with ISIS fighters in Sirte,statedlast week that they too have observed movements by the group south of Sirte, where they are trying to regroup and break through our forces lines in the south.

"Bunyan Marsous" Misrata militias who fought ISIS in Sirte concerned the terrorist outfit is resurging. (Robert Young Pelton)

Joseph Fallon, Islamic Extremism expert and U.K. Defense Forum research associate, concurred that ISIS has retreated south of Sirte to regroup and that its global threat cannot be underestimated.

Here, it can jeopardize western interests through guerrilla warfare sabotaging Libyas oil facilities and ports and through calculated use of terror to unleash a mass migration of people to destabilize neighboring countries and Europe, he said.

ISIS still maintains strong presence in Libya, capitalizing on the chaos that has engulfed the country since 2011.

A prominent portion of Libyas oil fields and reserves are located south of Sirte, along with major refineries. The country is home to Africas largest reserves, and its optimum quality of light crude is highly sought. Despite its ongoing political crisis, production in Libya last week climbed to around 885,000 barrels per day triple its production this time a year ago making the region ever more important to the global oil equation, and ISIS's presence there ever more troubling.

The terrorist army has, in Iraq and Syria, used oil fields as a means to fund its barbaric reign.

While more fighters are now expected to flow into Libya as the pressure on Iraq and Syria mounts, exactly how big the ISIS ranks in Libya are at present, remains largely contested.

ISIS DEFEATED, BUT NOT DESTROYED, AS TERROR GROUP STILL HOLDS STRATEGIC SWATHS OF IRAQ

In March, Marine Corps. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, head of the U.S militarys Africa Command, told Pentagon reporters that theirfighter numbershad fallen below 200 from an estimated five to six thousand a year earlier. But a spokesperson for Africa Command told Fox News this week that their strength has been assessed to be around 500.

In sharp contrast, LNAs Almesmari said ISIS numbers are far larger around five to seven thousand people of different nationalities.

INSIDE AFGHANISTAN'S WAR HOSPITALS: CHILDREN LEFT FOR DEAD AMID ESCALATING VIOLENCE

The terrorist group, Pelton indicated, is well positioned to survive territorial losses such as Mosul, Raqqa and Sirte as its savvy propaganda promotion ensures ongoing recruitment.

ISIS is a transnational franchise that comes with funding, trainers and PR packages, Pelton noted. They seek out groups who will re-brand themselves and project the image of an international organization by standardizing logos, messaging and even design criteria for tweets and videos.

ISIS BODIES PILING UP IN LIBYAN MORGUE, REPORT SAYS

Sirte, Libya under ISIS occupation in 2016. (Robert Young Pelton)

Since the death of its longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi who was killed in 2011 following then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Obama administrations alleged maneuvers to back rebels in the quest for regime change Libya as a country remains in a protracted state of conflict and a breeding ground for violent militias to emerge. Its flushed with radical militias, weapons, human traffickers and two main although there are many competing factions.

July 2016: Haunting remains of what is left of Sirte, Libya. (International Committee of the Red Cross)

There is the U.S. and U.N.-supported Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Prime Minister Fayez Serraj in Tripoli, at odds with the LNA which is helmed by the Egypt-endorsed, Benghazi-based Gen. Khalifa Haftar. One U.S official affiliated with the GNA, who requested anonymity, told Fox News that the political and security vacuum that existed in the country post 2011 allowed ISIS to take root.

ISIS still poses a threat not just to Libya, the U.S official added, but to its neighbors, Europe and the United States.

Hollie McKay has been a FoxNews.com staff reporter since 2007. She has reported extensively from the Middle East on the rise and fall of terrorist groups such as ISIS in Iraq. Follow her on twitter at @holliesmckay

Link:
ISIS, squeezed out of Iraq and Syria, now 'regrouping' in Libya, analysts say - Fox News

The Libyan eastern military governor Abdelraziq Al-Nathori was accused by Abdelbasit Al-Saiti of detaining his brother Rashid Al-Saiti - the deputy head of the civil registry authority - with no rightful executions.

Bawabet Al-Wasat website cited Al-Saiti as saying that his brother went to meet with Al-Nathori along with his chauffeur and one of the authority's employees.

"All were surprised that Rashid did not depart from that meeting and when they asked for him, the guards said the military governor ordered his arrest." The website added.

Al-Saiti also said that they don't know why his brother was arrested; whether because of political, tribal or criminal reasons, saying that if the reasons were criminal, he was supposed to be arrested in a legal way with a prior investigation.

"What happened is not justifiable." Al-Saiti added.

He also explained that there are tribal disputes between his tribe and Al-Nathori's one that go three years back, adding that this could be the reason why his brother was arrested.

"I call on Khalifa Haftar to interfere and see the issue of my brother. These irresponsible behaviors by certain individuals from the army could lit up a conflict among tribes." Al-Sait indicated.

An armed group at Labreg airport in eastern Al-Bayda city city in east Libya last week while he was on his way back from a business trip from Tripoli.

He was later released without revealing why he was detained in the first place.

Link:
East Libya military governor detaining deputy head of civil registry authority - The Libya Observer

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See the rest here:
Emmanuel Macron says France will set up refugee 'hotspots' in Libya - The Independent