The Prime Minister of Tripoli, AbdulHamid Dbeibah, was accused by the High Council of State of blocking the council’s meeting on Monday and rekindling political unrest in the nation.
The High Council of State leveled the claims in response to photographs shown by local media showing armoured trucks from an armed group under the leadership of Dbeibah’s regime surrounding a significant hotel in the capital Tripoli and barring council members from entering.
In a video message posted to Facebook, the head of the council, Khalid al-Mishri, stated that the body had been scheduled to vote on a constitutional basis for elections.
Elections to replace Dbeibah’s administration were scheduled for December 2021 but were postponed indefinitely. According to Mishri, the hotel cancelled a conference room reservation due to “government directives.”
No other hotel, he continued, “has agreed to rent us” a conference room. The meeting’s agenda also included “the unity of executive power,” which suggested that it would include Dbeibah’s government’s future.
Mishri said Monday’s move was “the first time since the Feb. 17 revolution that a head of government has tried to prevent a sovereign institution from doing its work.”
Following the final significant conflict in Libya in 2020, Dbeibah was appointed as part of a United Nations-led peace process. However, the eastern-based parliament and military strongman Khalifa Haftar claim that Dbeibah’s term is now over.
The House of Representatives, situated in the eastern city of Tobruk, competes with the High Council of State, a body with Tripoli as its headquarters that functions like a senate.
For many years, militias and foreign countries have supported alternative eastern and western regimes in Libya. Since the 2011 NATO-backed rebellion that overthrew and ultimately murdered longtime autocrat Muammar Gadhafi, the Mediterranean country has been in a state of upheaval.
However, a strategy that was intended to set the nation on the road to elections had surfaced in the previous two years. Early in 2021, a temporary administration was established in Libya as part of a process mediated by the U.N.
Under intense international pressure, the administration, headed by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah, momentarily brought the political groups together. But because the vote was never held, the plan has subsequently fallen apart and the nation is now in turmoil.
Saleh, the influential speaker of Libya‘s east-based parliament, and other lawmakers argued that Dbeibah’s term expired when the interim administration failed to hold elections.
As the new prime minister, they selected Fathi Bashagha, a powerful former interior minister from the western city of Misrata. Putschist General Khalifa Haftar, whose forces hold sway over much of the country’s south and east, including important oil facilities, supported their position.
Dbeibah has refused to resign, and the western Libyan factions that are associated with him fiercely oppose Haftar. They assert that Dbeibah, who is from Misrata as well and has connections to its strong militias, is striving to hold polls.
