CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd June, 2020) Libya's Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) on Tuesday downgraded its representation at the Arab League after slamming the regional bloc for backing its rival's ally, Egypt.
"Libya is downgrading its representation at Arab League meetings and criticizes the existing double standards. A meeting requested by the GNA in April of last year still has not taken place despite securing a quorum," the GNA's foreign policy office said in a statement.
The Arab League is holding a meeting on Libya on Tuesday at the request of Egypt, which proposed a truce between the UN-backed GNA and the eastern-based Libyan administration linked to commander Khalifa Haftar, who traveled to Egypt for talks in early June.
Libya has been divided for years between the two rival governments seeking to establish control over the entire country. Haftar's army, the Libyan National Army, has been laying siege to Tripoli since the spring of 2019 in a bid to capture the seat of the GNA.
GNA's representative to the Arab League, Saleh Shammakhi, said the forces of the western-based government had managed to defeat "Haftar's terrorist militia and liberated the cities that were under their control, with the last of them being Tarhuna," over which GNA forces had established control earlier this month.
Countries that support the LNA are the ones "who have provided logistic support to transport extremists and mercenaries to Libya," the GNA official added.
In recent weeks, troops affiliated with the GNA have made major military gains against Haftar's army. The western-based government, which has the backing of Turkey and Qatar, has said it wants to seize the strategic city of Sirte from the LNA.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi said on Saturday that a foreign-backed attack on Sirte, some 560 miles from the Egyptian border, would be a "red line" for his country's military intervention in the Libyan conflict. In response, the LNA introduced a no-fly zone over the city on Sunday.
