The Tripoli-based National Unity Government (GNA) denounced yet another "coup" by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the day after the eastern man proclaimed that he had a "mandate of the people ” to govern alone Libya, plagued by chaos.
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Accused by his critics of wanting to establish a new military dictatorship in Libya, almost a decade after the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, Marshal Haftar, who controls the east but also a part of the south, announced on Monday evening the transfer from power to its self-proclaimed army, saying it "accepted the will of the people and their mandate" . Khalifa Haftar, who derives his legitimacy from an elected parliament based also in the east, did not specify with which institution he had received "mandate".
He also did not explain the political implications of his announcement: will Parliament and the parallel government from which it will be dissolved? According to a source close to the Libyan leader, he is preparing, at the very least, to announce a new government. Monday evening, Marshal Haftar also announced "the end of the Skhirat agreement" , signed in 2015 in Morocco under the aegis of the UN and from which came the GNA, based in Tripoli, in the northwest of country.
"A long series" of coups
In reaction to the remarks of the high-ranking, the GNA of Fayez al-Sarraj denounced a "farce and a new coup" , "which adds to a long series" . In 2017, Khalifa Haftar had already assured that the Skhirat agreement had "expired" . In 2014, he said in a television speech that he was going to take power, but his announcement went unheeded. Haftar, who has been trying for a year to militarily seize Tripoli, wants by his announcement "to conceal the defeat of his militias and mercenaries" and "the failure of his dictatorial project" , argued the GNA, in allusion to the recent setbacks pro-Haftar. "Haftar's decision to formalize his direct control over the east (...) is a sign of his growing despair at the successes of the GNA in the west" , also judges Hamish Kinnear, analyst for the consulting firm Verisk Maplecroft.
Armed with Turkish support, the GNA forces resumed two strategic cities in the west two weeks ago from the pro-Haftar and surround Tarhouna, the most important rear base of the marshal, about fifty kilometers south-east of Tripoli. .
A decision condemned by Europe and the United States
Over the months, foreign armed interference has exacerbated the Libyan conflict, with the United Arab Emirates and Russia in the Haftar camp, and on the other, Turkey and its growing aid to the GNA. This Tuesday, Moscow however distanced itself from the approach of the former. "We do not accept Marshal Haftar's statement that he will unilaterally decide how the Libyan people will live," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reacted at an online press conference. None of the rival parties "helps to find a stable compromise ," he said.
Washington and the European Union also condemned, the United States regretting the "suggestion" of Khalifa Haftar, described as a "unilateral" approach . "For us, the Libyan political agreement, the institutions that flow from it, remain the only internationally recognized framework of government in Libya," said UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric in New York. This position is part of "the line of UN resolutions" adopted on Libya, he said.
"It is unlikely that there will be dissent against Haftar"
Like the country, the legislative power is divided between a pro-Haftar institution, in Tobrouk (east), and another hemicycle which is hostile to it in Tripoli. In its condemnation of the marshal's step, the GNA noted that the strong man from the east had "turned against the parallel political bodies which supported him and appointed him" head of the army, inviting the deputies concerned to "join their colleagues" in the capital.
But, according to Jalel Harchaoui of the Clingendael Institute in The Hague, if Khalifa Haftar now demands that the Assembly "submit entirely to the army" , "it is unlikely that a dissent will manifest itself against the coup de Haftar " . The President of the Parliament can also "find it difficult to stand up to the marshal openly". By this announcement of a takeover by the people, Haftar wants to establish itself as the only interlocutor in the east and oust any actor favorable to dialogue, like Mr. Salah, adds Emad Badi, expert at the Atlantic Council.