MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th July, 2020) The Tobruk-based Libyan parliament demands that the state capital be changed from Tripoli to the city of Sirte, parliamentary lawmaker Idris al-Maghrabi said on Thursday.
The strategic city of Sirte is currently under the control of the Libyan National Army (LNA), supported by the eastern Libyan parliament, also known as the House of Representatives.
"[The eastern Libyan authorities] demand Sirte to be the capital instead of Tripoli, as the latter is occupied by foreign troops," al-Maghrabi told the Al-Arabiya broadcaster.
At Wednesday's meeting in the city of Benghazi between the top LNA officials, parliament members and a US delegation, headed by Chargé d'Affaires in Libya Joshua Harris, ways in which military escalation in Sirte and Jufra can be reduced were discussed, as well as the political solution to the crisis, the lawmaker added.
"All foreign countries, which intervened militarily in Libya, must withdraw," al-Maghrabi added.
The lawmaker noted that the parties have agreed that the country's oilfields should resume operations, and a special account for the petroleum revenues must be created�"until the special executive committee is formed."
According to the statement by the US embassy in Libya, Harris affirmed that "as the oil blockade is lifted, the Embassy will remain fully engaged to promote the transparent management of oil and gas revenues."
Prior to this visit, the US official had also traveled to another Libyan city - Misrata - on July 27.
In early June, Egypt's leader, Abdel Fattah Sisi, announced the so-called Cairo initiative, which outlined the conditions of a political settlement in the North African country and stipulated that the warring parties cease fire on June 8.
Sisi then added that a possible seizure of Sirte by the LNA's rival, the Government of National Accord, would be "the red line" for Egypt's intervention.
On July 20, the Egyptian parliament unanimously approved the dispatch of military forces to conduct combat operations in Libya should there be an imminent threat to the national security of both countries.
