Armed clashes broke out Tuesday morning in Tripoli after the head of the country's new government appointed by the House of Representatives (HR, parliament), Fathi Bashagha, arrived there, Al-Hadath TV channel reported.
Clashes with the use of various weapons, including large-caliber machine guns, are taking place between the units loyal to Bashagha and the formations supporting Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh's Government of National Unity (GoNU). The latter refuses to resign, insisting that he will only hand over the reins to elected authorities. According to reports, intense shootings are already taking place in the central part of the city. There are no reports of casualties yet.
Earlier on Tuesday, the head of the interior ministry of the cabinet, Bashagha, said that the appointed Libyan government will perform its duties from Tripoli. He added, however, that the interior ministry would not prosecute members of Dbeibeh's government for political reasons.
On April 21, Othman Abdul Jalil, a spokesman for the new prime minister, said that the government is in no hurry to move to the capital and intends to move there only peacefully.
The parliamentary and presidential elections in Libya were to have been held on December 24 last year, but at the very last moment they were postponed indefinitely because of the inability to organize them, including due to gaps and imperfections in the hastily made-to-order legislation. On March 3, the Libyan parliament swore in the new transitional government led by Bashagha in Tobruk, whom lawmakers elected as the new prime minister on February 10, considering that the mandate of the GoNU had expired at the end of December. Meanwhile, Dbeibeh had previously repeatedly warned that he did not intend to resign and would only hand over the reins to his successor after the general elections for the preparation and conduct of which his government was created.
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Based on materials from TASS