Libya's Dabaiba hands over new government formation to Parliament, confidence-granting session to be held Monday

CAIRO - 7 March 2020: Libya’s Prime Minister-designate of the new Government of National Unity (GNU), Abdel Hamid Al-Dabaiba, handed over the recent formation of the new government to the Presidency of the Libyan Parliament.

The Media Office of the Libyan Unity Government said that Dabaiba had submitted the ministerial formation per the road map and the procedures specified in the political agreement before holding the confidence-granting session scheduled for next Monday in Sirte.

The Libyan Parliament announced that the current prime minister had finalized the proposed names of his government members and submitted them to Speaker of Parliament Aquila Saleh.

The media office of the Parliament said in a statement that the Speaker of Parliament’s call for a session to give confidence to the government is still valid, indicating that the deputies required the session to be postponed to investigate allegations of bribery.

For his part, Minister of the Interior of the Interim Libyan Government, Ibrahim Bouchnaf, assigned both the Central Support Services and the Criminal Investigation Department to secure the confidence-granting session.

Dabaiba was accused of offering bribes to participants in the political dialogue conference, which was held in Tunis in November 2020, to vote for him, according to a report by UN experts. The report raised a state of confusion in the Libyan political scene, amid calls to postpone the session of granting confidence to the recent government until investigations are concluded.

As part of his ongoing efforts to mobilize support for the three-track Libyan-Libyan dialogue process, the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Ján Kubiš traveled to Moscow for talks with senior Russian officials.

The UN mission said in a statement that the special envoy met with Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov and his deputy Mikhail Bogdanov, where they discussed the latest political, security and economic developments in Libya, including ways to advance the implementation of the political roadmap and the ceasefire agreement signed on October 23, 2020.

The two parties emphasized the urgent need to move forward with forming a unified transitional government capable of meeting the needs of the Libyan people and preparing the country to conduct national elections on December 24, 2021.

In this regard, the two parties urged the House of Representatives to convene on the scheduled date next Monday to discuss and study the vote on granting confidence to the government.

Lavrov and his deputy renewed Russia's support for the efforts of the United Nations in Libya aimed at helping the Libyan people establish stability and prosperity in Libya, making it a sovereign and unified country.

On the other hand, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that a UN team in Libya is tasked with developing a ceasefire monitoring mechanism and preparing reports to be submitted to the Security Council.

According to the UN spokesperson, the team will assist in close consultation with the 5 + 5 Joint Military Committee and will provide the basis for UN support for the development of a ceasefire monitoring mechanism led and followed by the Libyans.

Dujarric indicated that the Special Envoy to Libya had continued during the past few days his efforts to mobilize regional and international support for the Libyan dialogue process, as the Special Envoy visited a large number of countries.