Libyan commander Haftar walks out of UN-sponsored political deal

Eastern Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar, whose forces control parts of the country, said on Sunday the United Nations-backed government was obsolete and he would listen to the will of the people, a firm hint he may run in elections expected next year.

Haftar styles himself as a strongman capable of ending the chaos of armed factions that has gripped oil-producing Libya since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

"On December 17, 2017, the validity of the so-called political agreement comes to an end,” Haftar said in a televised speech on Sunday.

“With this, the bodies that resulted from the deal would automatically come to an end."

UN-backed agreement

Signed in the Moroccan city of Skhirat in late 2015, the UN-backed agreement gave rise to Libya’s current UN-backed unity government.

The East Libya-based parliament, however, has refused to sign the agreement, calling for the deal to be reformulated. 

In September, Libya’s main political camps began a new round of talks in neighbouring Tunisia with a view to amend the terms of the 2015 agreement.

Libyan voice matters

Haftar spoke in the eastern city of Benghazi, from where his forces managed to expel militants during a three-year battle.

He said he would never “follow any party unless it was elected by the Libyan people."

Haftar also dismissed a series of United Nations-led talks to bridge differences between Libya's two rival administrations, one linked to him in the east and one backed by the UN in the capital Tripoli, which he now declared obsolete.

Threat of sanctions

The UN has tried to find a solution that includes Haftar who said his command had been threatened with sanctions should he seek a deal outside the dialogue.

Some 1,000 Haftar supporters rallied in Benghazi, demanding the general take over after the deal missed its deadline on Sunday.

The UN says no such timeline exists and its mediation will continue.

The turnout was smaller than initially expected.

In Tripoli, home to a government opposed by Haftar, an unknown armed faction opened fire in the air to disperse some 150 supporters of the general on the central Martyrs Square, witnesses said. Nobody was hurt.

Bringing stability to Libya

The head of the UN Support Mission in Libya Ghassan Salame also released a statement on Sunday and urged all parties to refrain from any actions that could undermine the political process.

Since the launch of the UN Action Plan for Libya, on September 20, 2017, he said, efforts were going on "to support Libya to enter a stage of certainty, embodied in a stable, capable and fair state."

"The Action Plan, in all its stages, was, and still is, meant to prepare the proper conditions for free and fair elections."