Libya unveils UN-backed government … based in Tunisia

A new UN-backed Libyan government has been unveiled and tasked with uniting its warring factions, but rejection by leaders of the two existing parliaments leaves a question mark over its future.

The prime minister, Fayez Sarraj, has appointed a 32-member cabinet tasked with ending the civil war, stemming immigration to Europe and halting the expansion of Islamic State. But for now the new government of national accord is based in a hotel in Tunis, capital of neighbouring Tunisia, after Libya was deemed too unsafe.

Sarraj’s government is the result of more than a year of mediation by the UN, whose Libya envoy, Martin Kobler, said: “The formation of the government of national accord is one important leap on the path to peace and stability in Libya. Hard work lies ahead.”

The government’s first task is to persuade the existing parliaments in Tripoli and Tobruk, at war with each other from opposite ends of the country, to drop their opposition.

After the house of representatives was elected in July 2014, the Islamist-controlled group Libya Dawn seized Tripoli and convened its own rival government, the general national congress, driving the democratically elected government east to Tobruk.

The internationally recognised house of representatives meets next Monday to vote on the UN-backed government, with its president, Aguila Saleh, already signalling his opposition. In Tripoli, militias of the general national congress have warned that the Tunis-based cabinet members risk arrest if they set foot in Libya.

The new cabinet also faces questions of legitimacy after two of the nine members of the presidential council that appointed it walked out, seemingly invalidating the appointments under the terms of its constitution. 

Guma El-Gamaty, a London-based member of Libya Dialogue – the UN-managed body that created the new government, insisted it could bring unity. “This is the best compromise possible to accommodate as many different stakeholders,” he said. “99% of ordinary Libyans want this agreement to succeed, to end the misery.”