GNA Leader Sarraj Calls on ICC to Investigate Actions of Rival Government in Libya

DOHA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th June, 2020) The head of Libya's UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) Fayez Sarraj has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to send specialists to Libya to investigate the actions of the east-based Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Khalifa Haftar.

The text of Sarraj's letter was read out by GNA Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mohammed Kablavi during a Sunday press conference broadcast by the Libya Al Ahrar tv.

"I am calling on the International Criminal Court to urgently send a team to Libya to investigate the crimes committed by Haftar's militants, all measures will be taken to that effect and necessary assistance will be provided," Fayez said in his letter, accusing LNA of shelling civilian residential areas and airports in Libya.

On June 6, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi held a meeting with field marshal Khalifa Haftar. After the talks, the Egyptian president announced the so-called Cairo Initiative which outlined conditions of a political settlement in Libya and stipulated that warring parties cease fire on June 8. The initiative was supported by Russia, the United States and several Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, while Turkey and the rival Libyan administration, the Tripoli-based GNA headed by Sarraj, rejected it.

For more than a year, Haftar's army has been trying to capture the capital of Libya. Both sides of the conflict have accused each other of receiving aid in arms and manpower from abroad.

In recent weeks, the GNA forces have made major military gains against LNA and have announced their intention to build on the success by establishing control of the city of Sirte, currently under the control of Haftar's forces.

Earlier this month, Sisi said that Egypt had an internationally legitimate right to intervene in Libya and told the army to be prepared to fight abroad, should the need arise. The Egyptian president also said that the Libyan east-based House of Representatives was the only legitimately elected one among Libya's power entities and offered to help Libyan tribes resist foreign intervention by training and equipping them.

Sisi stressed that if the city of Sirte, which he called the "red line" for Egypt, fell into the hands of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), Egypt would be legitimized in sending in its military on defense grounds.

On June 21, LNA spokesperson Maj. Gen. Ahmed Mismari said after the introduction of a no-fly zone around Sirte that Cairo was acting in the interests of national security and that the internal conflict in Libya had spread beyond the country's borders and the region. The LNA spokesperson accused groups supported by the GNA of escalating the internal crisis in Libya and claimed that Turkey was meddling in the situation in order to get hold of Libyan resources.