Libyan tribal leaders taking part in a large gathering in Tobruk in which they rejected ongoing talks sponsored by the UN, declaring full support for the elected parliament and demanding lifting of arms embargo against Libyan army.
Libyan tribes on Saturday have strongly rejected the UN sponsored talks with ‘terrorists and killers’ and demanded that talks going on now in Morocco must stop as the solution of Libya’s crisis can only be through dialogue sponsored by Libyan tribes themselves inside Libya.
The largest tribal meeting, the Gathering of Libyan Tribes, is taking place in the city of Tobruk, the seat of the House of Representatives, slammed the United Nations Special Envoy Bernardino Leon for his insistence that the talks with Islamic State terrorists must go on.
Leon, they said, aims to destroy Libya by his disregard of the calls by the Libyan people on the UN to lift arms embargo against the Libyan army and provide support to the democratically elected government.
In what is becoming a clear indication of loss of trust in the UN mediation in the Libyan conflict, a tribal leader after a leader took the podium to stress that it is the sons of Libyan tribes who are dying everyday fighting local and foreign terrorists who are being assisted by foreign powers and counties.
The head of the political council of the Aabaidat tribe in eastern Libya said “we reject the dialogue of the deaf that is absurdly moving from place to place by obtrusive elements who do not want well for Libya”.
Sheikh Bryek al-Lawati from Mennifah tribe told Libya Awalan TV channel that Libyan tribes reject dialogue with murders and terrorist stressing that “the militias that Mr. Leon wants us to talk with are those who destroyed the country and brought IS terrorists to the country”.
Some tribal leaders hinted at the idea that Leon and some foreign powers do not want the elected Libyan government to take control of the capital that is now taken hostage by Islamic extremists and ISIS groups.
A political expert who is close to the parliament in Tobruk told The Tripoli Post that the UN special envoy to Libya “is wasting his time and the time of the Libyan people. He has zero credibility”. “Mr. Leon should support the lifting of the arms embargo and the Libyan army instead of playing into the hands of the militias and terrorists in Libya,” the expert, who declined to be named, added.
“The Libyan tribes’ dialogue is the real dialogue and not that is being held outside the country by the enemies of Libya,” Sheikh Yousef Tayieb al Abbar told the gathering. He demanded the participants to establish a Libyan tribal council that will indeed protect Libya’s unity, stability and peace.
The legitimate government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni announced Friday that its troops had started a campaign to "liberate" the capital Tripoli held by militias and Islamic terrorists.
"The government salutes the operations launched by army units south of Tripoli which constitute the start of an offensive to liberate Tripoli and its suburbs," a statement by the government said yesterday.
The Libyan army supported by tribes in the west, including the Zintan tribe, succeeded on Friday to take control of Azizyia city, 30 kms southwest of Tripoli, in a first phase of the campaign that is moving ahead as planned to free Tripoli.
The tribal leaders gathering in Tobruk called for full support for the national army and police force as the only realistic course to bring stability and peace to Libya.
Prominent Libyan journalist Said Aarrish in a TV interview on Saturday said the gathering of the Libyan tribes in Tobruk is most crucial and should have taken place earlier. “The tribes, supported by the army, are the main and only factor that will bring stability and peace to Libya,” he stressed.
“The duality of the tribe and army is what protects the country and must be taken into consideration by anyone who wants to help Libya ends its crisis,” Aarrish said.
In contrast to western media reports that unfairly point at Libya as a divided country, Aarrish says the gathering of Libyan tribes in Tobruk on Saturday embodies the real meaning of the national unity as they gather together and none of them carries differences with the others.
All participating tribes have supported the objectives of the meeting including: Full support of the elected House of Representatives; full support of the national army; rejecting Leon’s talks; any dialogue must be sponsored by the House of Representatives; lifting of social protection of criminals and terrorist and speeding up writing of the Constitution by adopting the Libyan constitution of 1963.
http://www.tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=11065
