New Libya interim government agreed in U.N. talks

GENEVA/TRIPOLI, (Reuters) U.N. sponsored talks produced a new interim government for Libya yesterday aimed at resolving a decade of chaos, division and violence by holding national elections later this year.

Mohammed al-Menfi, a former diplomat from Benghazi, will head a three-man presidency council, while Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, from the western city of Misrata, will head the government as prime minister.

Libya has been engulfed in chaos since a NATO-backed intervention ended Muammar Gaddafi’s fourdecade rule in 2011 and has been split since 2014 between warring administrations backed by foreign powers in the west and east.

However, with many factions in the country afraid to surrender influence they already hold, and with foreign powers invested in local allies, the new government may rapidly come under pressure.

“My appeal to everybody is to recognize and accept these results and to work with the new authorities that were elected,” U.N. SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres said.

The appointment of a new government may also do little to change the balance of military power on the ground, where armed groups rule the streets and factions remain split between east and west along a fortified front line.

“This is the last chance for the Libyan people and political leaders to end the conflict and division in the country. We hope to reach the stage of elections, just as they have promised, to achieve the people’s demands,” said Gamal al-Fallah, a political activist in Benghazi.

Analysts describe the new government team as surprise winners of a leadership contest against three other groups of candidates presented to the 75 Libyan participants picked by the United Nations to take part in political talks. A slate that included the eastern-based parliament head Aguila Saleh and western-based interior minister Fathi Bashagha was widely seen as the most likely to succeed but lost in a run-off by 39 votes to 34. “This is certainly a shake-up, and as a result it will get support from groups that were preparing to fight Aguila or Fathi,” said Tarek Megerisi, of the European Council on Foreign Relations.