Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Libya Parliamentarians Promote Haftar to Field Marshall | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Cairo- General Khalifa Haftar made history in Libya as he is the first military official to be promoted to field marshal by parliamentarians in the east of the country.

The promotion coincided with the sudden arrival of Fayez Al-Sarraj, head of the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord, in Cairo accompanied by a delegation. The visit was unscheduled and unannounced.

General Haftar is known to be at odds with the GNA which has allocated the defense portfolio to another officer, Ibrahim al-Barghathi.

Cairo has been mediating between the Haftar and Sarraj governments.

Sarraj visited Cairo to meet some members of the Libyan House of Representatives (HoR) to talk about the need to form the Government of National Accord (GNA) urgently, for the third time.

The visit comes after the recent political and military developments in Libya, especially after the Army affiliated to the Interim government, under the leadership of Haftar, controlled the oil crescent region.

Officials at the army acting under the Haftar-led interim government orders, believe that there are international efforts of having the oil crescent case go in favor of the Sarraj-led GNA.

With those concerns, along with the international powers forcing the GNA on the people of Libya, officials justified the take back of the crescent oil fields.

Libya’s Justice and Construction Party, the Muslim Brotherhood branch in the African state, urged that all the state’s oil fields are put under the internationally-backed government of Sarraj. The reason behind this is to kickstart the economic wheel through authorizing and resuming oil exports.

The bloc confirmed through a statement that all military, security and police forces must be united and impartial. The government must not be overrun by the military whatsoever, the statement said.

Officials added that spurring strife and rolling the drums of civil war only means more death and destruction, not to mention a great opportunity for terrorism to slip even deeper into the already penetrated oil state.

All Libyans were called to back the political solution, the Morocco-sponsored Skhirat agreement, signed at the end of 2015.

The Libyan political agreement states that this dialogue is based on four main principles—Far and foremost ensuring the democratic rights of the Libyan people, the need for a consensual government based on the principle of the separation of powers, oversight and balance between them, as well as the need to empower state institutions like the GNA so that they can address the serious challenges ahead and respect for the Libyan judiciary and its independence.