Libya Dawn forces thwart 'plot' to restore Gaddafi's regime

Libyan figures, including members of the current and former parliament and who belong to the Islamist trend, said that the Libya Dawn forces thwarted a plan to restore late president Muammar Gaddafi’s regime to power. They have called on the international community to recognise the legitimacy of the General National Congress, the former interim parliament, until new parliamentary elections are held.

This was revealed during a press conference held in Istanbul yesterday. Their vision is opposed by members of current parliament in the city of Tobruk, in eastern Liby,a as well as Abdullah Al-Thini’s government. This government and parliament has been granted wide-spread international recognition as they stress that they represent the Libyan people, but consider Libya Dawn forces as “terrorist militias” and the General National Congress and Omar Al-Hasi’s government as two illegitimate institutions.

During the conference, which was attended by a correspondent from the Anadolu Agency, the officials called on the world, beginning with Turkey, to recognise the rulings of the Constitutional Court. They also criticised countries, not naming any specifically, that “call for state institutions, while they are stalling in dealing with the national Libyan institution rulings”, in reference to the decision of the Supreme Court in Tripoli issued on November 6. The ruling declared the House of Representatives election held last June to be void, and legal experts have interpreted this ruling as dictating the dissolution of the General Assembly.

In this regard, Mohammed Ibrahim Dorat, a member of parliament said that “the February 17, 2011, revolution only eliminated the head of the regime while the rest of its members disappeared and are not re-emerging to the political scene in order to restore the former regime. They are doing so by means of arming some forces, such as the Al-Sawaiq Brigade and Al-Qaqa Brigade in the west of Libya, as well forces in the east know as Al-Saiqa forces.”

He added: “Instead of being spent on development and reconstructing the country, Libya’s funds were used by [former prime minister] Ali Zeidan’s government to fund these brigades and provide them with weapons. Then work began towards overthrowing the revolution and restoring individual governance, which was followed by Khalifa Haftar, who is considered a former criminal and a wanted man, announcing he was eliminating terrorism when he overthrew the General National Congress [the interim parliament] and the other state institutes. He used the term terrorism for his claims because he knows it gains international support.”

Dorat also explained that “when the rebels felt this conspiracy, they took action to restore matters to their natural situation, as well as restore legitimacy, revolution and democracy. There have been clashes in Tripoli to fight off the brigades that were seeking to gain control of the county. There were also clashes in Benghazi and the eastern region, against the same brigades that were used by Gaddafi to fight the Libyan people in 2011.”

“The international community’s interventions in Libya were confusing and chaotic and did not serve the interests of Libya, especially regarding the reactions to the Supreme Court ruling in Tripoli,” considering the failure to recognise this ruling to mean that these countries “do not recognise the state institutions”.

He called on “all friendly countries to recognise the legitimate institutions, especially Turkey, who want to support the Libyan people.”