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Libya seeks extra week to form unity govt

By Editor
09 February 2016   |   6:50 am
LIBYA’S presidential council said yesterday that it needs one more week to form a national unity government, after the country’s internationally recognised parliament rejected an initial line-up. The council, chaired by prime minister-designate Fayez al-Sarraj, had been due to submit the names of a new unity government tomorrow for approval by the recognised parliament. A…
PHOTO: AFP

PHOTO: AFP

LIBYA’S presidential council said yesterday that it needs one more week to form a national unity government, after the country’s internationally recognised parliament rejected an initial line-up.

The council, chaired by prime minister-designate Fayez al-Sarraj, had been due to submit the names of a new unity government tomorrow for approval by the recognised parliament.

A 32-member unity government was announced on January 19 under a United Nations-brokered deal signed the previous month in Morocco aimed at ending years of bloodshed in oil-rich Libya and which led to the formation of the nine-member council, AFP reported.

But the recognised parliament on January 25 rejected the line-up, saying it was too large and set a 10-day deadline for a smaller cabinet.

Sarraj, a businessman, has been holding a series of consultations with Libyan political players to forge a new government.

Yesterday, the presidential council said it had asked the legislature based in the eastern city of Tobruk to grant it an extra week, a council source told AFP.

The source said the council “needs more time” to discuss the line-up.
World powers have been pressing Libyans to back a unity government as a step towards ending the political chaos that has gripped the country since the 2011 ouster of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

The Islamic State jihadist group has taken advantage of chaos in Libya to spread its influence, posing a threat to the rest of Africa as well as to Europe across the Mediterranean.

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