Libya’s Bashagha demands PM Dbeibah to hand over power ‘peacefully’

The Libyan Prime Minister-designate of the eastern-based Parliament, Fathi Bashagha, called Wednesday on the Tripoli-based Prime Minister, Abdulhamid Dbeibah, to peacefully hand over power, Anadolu News Agency reported.

In a letter seen by the Anadolu correspondent, Bashagha called on Dbeibah to “resort to peace and avoid war”.

“This is a sincere and patriotic call, and we look forward to your highly patriotic response to respect the interest of the country,” Bashagha added in his letter.

For his part, Dbeibah rejected Bashagha’s call and said in a Facebook post, “To the former Minister of Interior (Bashagha), spare yourself from sending repeated messages and threats to ignite war and target civilians.”

Dbeibah added that, if Bashagha was keen to preserve the lives of Libyans, he should resort to elections instead of “military coups”.

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Libya has had little peace since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, and it split in 2014 between warring factions – in the west where Tripoli is located, and in the east, where the Parliament moved, Reuters reported.

Dbeibah’s government was installed last year to run all of Libya for an interim period as part of a peace process that was meant to include national elections in December.

However, in March, the eastern-based Parliament appointed Bashagha as Prime Minister, a move rejected by Dbeibah, who insists on handing over power to a democratically elected government.