Libya MPs Reject Govt. Lineup, Want Crisis Team
Libya's parliament rejected Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani's proposed 18-member cabinet Thursday, calling for a slimline "crisis" team of not more than 10 ministers, a deputy said.
Thani and the internationally-recognized parliament, elected in June, are in virtual domestic exile in the far eastern city of Tobruk because of widespread insecurity, including in the capital, where a rival administration has been set up.
That insecurity was underscored again on Thursday when unidentified gunmen murdered a retired air force chief of staff, general Ahmed Habib al-Mesmari, in second city Benghazi.
Libya has been rocked by political instability since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
Thani submitted his proposed team of 18 ministers to parliament on Wednesday, speaker Fradj Abu Hashem said, without giving names.
But one deputy, speaking anonymously, said Thani has proposed keeping the key defense portfolio while giving the interior portfolio, another crucial job, to a former minister, Ashur Shwayel, an independent.
He said a woman and human rights activist, Farid al-Allagui, was proposed as foreign minister, and Abdelhafidh Ghoga, a former member of the post-revolution National Transitional Council, as justice minister.
Speaking on Thursday, a deputy said MPs had "decided to renew their confidence in Thani so that he might form a crisis government of limited size" of no more than 10 people.
In practice, the writ of parliament and Thani is limited.
Benghazi, the cradle of the anti-Gadhafi uprising, is almost entirely in Islamist hands. And armed groups, notably Islamists from the city of Misrata, have seized Tripoli.
At the same time, fighters from the Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) alliance have constituted a rival government in Tripoli under Islamist sympathizer Omar al-Hassi and set the constitutionally defunct General National Congress (GNC), or interim parliament, back to work.
Amid this chaotic scenario, an air force officer in Benghazi said Thursday that unidentified gunmen had gunned down retired general Mesmari in the city center.
Mesmari stood down as air force chief of staff in April after attending a meeting with renegade general Khalifa Haftar, whom the then authorities in Tripoli accused of staging a coup.
A hospital source in Benghazi said he had been "hit by several bullets".
For several months, the city has seen clashes between army forces loyal to Haftar and Islamist militias, including Ansar al-Sharia jihadists.
The Libyan authorities and the United States consider Ansar al-Sharia to be a "terrorist" group.
On May 16, Haftar's forces launched an offensive against the jihadists in Benghazi, but his campaign has not been a success.
On Wednesday, the Islamists launched another assault on Benghazi airport, Haftar's final redoubt.
In March, the Islamist-dominated GNC ousted premier Ali Zeidan in a no-confidence vote and temporarily replaced him with Thani until a permanent successor could be found.
But political wrangling prevented that, and Thani carried on in the job on a caretaker basis.
Thani submitted his resignation in August, but parliament asked him earlier this month to stay on and form a new government.