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The High Council of State (HCS) has expressed surprise at the joint statement issued by the embassies of Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, France and the United States in Libya, regarding their indication that the current time is not appropriate for making changes in positions related to preparing elections in Libya.

In a statement Friday, the council considered the embassies statement an interference in the internal affairs of Libya. "The violation of Libyan sovereignty does not only mean the presence of foreign mercenaries on the ground but rather through an attempt to impose foreign political dictates that are categorically rejected," the HCS said.

The council stressed the need to hold the elections on time on solid constitutional foundations, insisting that the independence of the Libyan decision cannot be compromised.

It called on the ambassadors not to go beyond their tasks set by the diplomatic norms. "The foreign ambassadors hould observe the laws of the host country, abide by them, and not jump over them under any pretext," the statement read.

The embassies of the five countries have recalled in their statement the Security Council Resolution 2570 calling for the Libyan authorities and institutions, including the Government of National Unity and the House of Representatives, to facilitate the elections of December 24, 2021, and to agree on the constitutional and legal basis for the elections by July 1, 2021.

The statement added that in addition to the political and security arrangements, technical and logistical preparations are important and essential, stressing that now is not the time for any "disruptive changes" at the relevant bodies which have a fundamental role in preparing for the elections, within the timescale set out by the Security Council Resolution.

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HCS: Statement of western embassies is interference in Libyan internal affairs - The Libya Observer

A Maltese man was arrested in Libya a month ago and his partner has raised concerns about his wellbeing as she faces a bureaucratic wall of silence.

Jesmond Vella, aged 45, known as Il-Bulgaru, was arrested at Zuwarah on suspicion of human smuggling and drug trafficking on April 5.

The operation was carried out by the Rada Special Deterrence Forces, in what was initially feared to be a kidnapping. But it later transpired that the order of the arrest came from the Libyan Attorney General, sources told Times of Malta.

Vella, who has been living in the coastal city of Zuwarah with his Maltese wife for eight years, is also known to the Maltese police.

When contacted, the Maltese ambassador to Libya, Charles Saliba, who is closely following the case, said Vella has not yet been formally charged with the crime.

Lovin Malta reported that Vella, a mechanic, may have suffered a beating or torture in a country still reeling with unrest.

Vella's wife said he had been kidnapped and is currently being held by a militia outside of Tripoli and that bureaucracy and a breakdown in communication are proving troublesome for Maltese authorities and the family, who fear he is in grave danger and may never return home.

She recalled the day when her husband went missing on April 5, saying she returned home when she discovered her husband's car parked in the driveway. His keys were still in the ignition and his cigarettes were left on the driver seat.

The next day she raised the alarm with the Maltese authorities who believe Vella is being detained at Rada's headquarters at Mitiga airport.

Confronted by the claims, the ambassador said: There is a process we need to follow. We have nothing to back claims that he has been tortured. But we will give all the assistance we can.

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Wall of silence one month after Maltese man is arrested in Libya - Times of Malta

CAIRO (AP) Libyas top diplomat Monday called for the departure of foreign forces and mercenaries from the North African country as it heads toward elections later this year.

Najla al-Manqoush, foreign minister of Libyas interim government, urged Turkey to implement U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding the repatriation of more than 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries from Libya.

Her remarks came at a joint news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. He visited the capital of Tripoli with Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and other top military and intelligence officials.

We call on (Turkey) to take steps to implement all the provisions of ... the Security Council resolutions and to cooperate together to expel all foreign forces and mercenaries from the Libyan territories, she said.

The remarks were seen as a rebuke to Turkey, which has deployed troops and Syrian mercenaries to fight along with Tripoli militias since forces of military commander Khalifa Hifter launched their attack on the capital in 2019.

Cavusoglu responded by saying that Turkish forces were in Libya as part of a training agreement reached with a previous Libya administration. There are those who equate our legal presence ... with the foreign mercenary groups that fight in this country for money, he said.

Turkey has been closely involved in Libya. It backed the U.N.-recognized Government of National Accord based in Tripoli against Hifters forces. Turkey sent military supplies and fighters to Libya helping to tilt the balance of power in favor of the GNA.

Turkey also signed an agreement with the Tripoli-based government delineating the maritime boundaries between the two countries in the Mediterranean. That triggered protests from Greece and Cyprus. Both countries denounced the agreement saying it was a serious breach of international law that disregarded the rights of other eastern Mediterranean countries.

Libya was plunged into chaos when a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 toppled longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. The oil-rich country was in recent years split between rival east- and west-based administrations, each backed by different armed groups and foreign governments.

Libyas interim government, which took power in March, is tasked with bringing together a country that has been torn apart by civil war for nearly a decade. It also aims to steer Libya through a general election on Dec. 24.

Security Council diplomats say there are more than 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries in Libya, including 13,000 Syrians and 11,000 Sudanese, along with Russians and Chadians.

The Security Councils 15 member nations agreed in an informal meeting last week that getting the foreign fighters and mercenaries to go home was the only way forward, according to the officials.

___

Associated Press writer Suzan Frazer contributed from Ankara, Turkey.

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Libya top diplomat urges Turkey to withdraw foreign fighters - Associated Press

The Muslim Brotherhood in Libya has converted into a nongovernmental organization (NGO), the group said Sunday.

In a written statement, the organization said it has changed its name to the Resurrection and Reform Society.

"We declare to all Libyans that, with the grace and help of Allah, the community has turned into an association called the Resurrection and Reform Society in order to revive the call of the community to obey the middle way approach and teachings of Islam," it said on its social media page.

The decision was made at its 11th convention, where many workshops and "dialogue tours" were held. The group aims to convey its message by working intensively in various public areas in Libya.

Abdurrezzak Sergen, a former member of the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood and a member of the organization's political wing, the Justice and Construction Party (JCP), told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the group had decided that its work should only be within Libya, so it had turned into an NGO.

Sergen noted that after this decision, the organization had no connections outside of Libya, it was not affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood organization, and it became an independent society that only works within the country.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded by Hassan al-Banna in Egypt in 1928. It was blacklisted by Egyptian authorities in 2013 following the ouster of Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, in a military coup led by then military general Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.

Following the transition of power, the Egyptian military crushed the Muslim Brotherhood in a major crackdown, arresting Morsi and many of the group's other leaders, who have been in prison undergoing multiple trials ever since the coup, drawing condemnation from the United Nations.

Since 2014, authorities in Jordan have also considered it illegal, arguing its license was not renewed under a 2014 law on political parties.

It continued to operate, but its relations with the Jordanian state deteriorated further from 2015 when the government authorized an offshoot group, the Muslim Brotherhood Association.

In April 2016, security services closed the Brotherhood's Amman headquarters and several regional offices, transferring their ownership to the splinter group in a step the movement denounced as political.

The original Brotherhood took the case to court in a bid to retrieve the properties, but the court in its verdict Wednesday ordered it dissolved.

The Brotherhood argues that it had already obtained licenses to operate under previous laws in the 1940s and 1950s.

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Libyan Muslim Brotherhood converts into NGO | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah

TRIPOLI -Libyan political analysts view with suspicion the slowing down of the appointment process for new figures in key government positions.

They do not rule out the possibility that the ultimate aim of the jockeying around the process aims to delay the appointments so as to maintain the incumbents in place, especially the governor of the Central Bank, Saddek Elkaber, who has been entrenched in the same position for nearly ten years.

The analysts believe that current limbo may be the result of a deal between the Speaker of Parliament, Aguila Salehand the Speaker of the State Council, Khaled al-Mishri.

The State Council wrote to the House of Representatives (Parliament) on Saturday regarding the nominations for the sovereign positions to be filled, saying, We have noticed that the outputs referred to us from your committee are inconsistent with what was previously agreed upon in Bouznikas meetings. This indicates that there is a different basis for the work of the committees in the two chambers .

While the State Council lauded the House of Representatives efforts to reach a consensus regarding the holders of the leadership positions in sovereign posts pursuant to Article 15 of the Political Agreement on consultation between the two chambers in particular, the Council pointed out however that it remains committed to what has been previously agreed.

It added that in case parliament wishes to make any modifications to the criteria and mechanisms, we have no objection to holding additional meetings and discussions to reach common ground.

The position of the State Council strengthened suspicions about its intent to circumvent the Bouznika understandings on the reshuffling of sovereign positions, so as to keep the incumbents in their posts.

Sayyida al-Yaqoubi, a member of the State Council and the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, expressed the belief that with Mishris message, it seemed that the deal between the two councils (the State Council and the House of Representatives) was over.

She added in a Facebook post, There are indications of delays on the horizon. Where has the State Council been all this time?

It did not mention before the procedures followed in nominating candidates for sovereign positions, while now it occurs to it to suspend the process under the pretext of the procedures agreed upon in Bouznika.

Former member of the General National Congress, Tawfiq al-Shuhaibi, said, In short, the sovereign positions will not be changed, adding, There is a distribution of roles between the presidents of the House of Representatives and the State Council and the goal is to keep Elkaber and others in position. The comprehensive solution resides in holding parliamentary and presidential elections at the same time.

Observers link the stalled parliamentary approval of the 2021 budget to disagreements over the distribution of sovereign positions. This means that the budget crisis is on its way to a solution since an understanding has been reached over the sovereign positions.

The same observers do not rule out that international stakeholders in Libya, especially Turkey, that have close ties to the Libyan central bank governor, could be behind the delay which deprives Libyans of the opportunity to replace a figure accused of gross mismanagement that has adversely impacted the living conditions of the population.

The oil-rich North African nation has gone through many crises during Elkabers tenure, starting with the liquidity crisis and the salary freeze, to the decline of the dinars exchange value against the dollar, which has had a disastrous effect on Libyans purchasing power.

Despite decisions by the House of Representatives to remove him from office, Elkaber , who is perceived as a Muslim Brotherhood protg, has kept his post.

The authorities in the east and the tribes supporting them have often accused the Central Bank of Libya of distributing wealth unfairly and favouring pro-Islamist businessmen as well as the authorities in the west, while marginalising the eastern region, where most of the oil fields are located.

Last week, the Libyan parliament said it had sent the names of its nominees for sovereign positions to the State Consultative Council.

These positions include the governor of the Central Bank of Libya, the heads of the Higher National Elections Commission, the Audit Bureau, the Administrative Control Authority, the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Attorney General and the president of the Supreme Court.

On April 20, the Libyan parliament chose the head of the investigations department in the office of the Attorney General Al-Siddiq Al-Sour to be Attorney General.

The criteria for selecting candidates were agreed upon in the Bouznika talks in Morocco, last October, based on quotas between Libyas three historical regions (Tripoli, Cyrenaica and Fezzan).

Article 15 of the Political Agreement provides for consultations between parliament and the State Consultative Council to determine who will hold these positions.

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Libya's delay in filling key positions seems aimed at keeping central bank governor in place | | AW - The Arab Weekly