Ekip
07 March 2017•Update: 08 March 2017
By Moataz al-Magbari
BENGHAZI, Libya
Libya’s Tobruk-based parliament on Tuesday reversed its earlier endorsement of a UN-backed agreement signed in late 2015 between Libya’s rival political camps.
The move came during an official session of parliament broadcast on Libyan state television.
The assembly justified its decision by citing the recent capture of two energy terminals (Al-Sidra and Ras Lanouf) and two towns (Bin Jawad and Al-Noufaliya) by the self-styled Benghazi Defense Brigades (BDB).
Comprised largely of revolutionaries who fought the Gaddafi regime in 2011, the BDB was drawn up last summer to support the Shura Council of Benghazi group against forces loyal to Tobruk.
The Tobruk assembly has also decided to suspend its participation in talks aimed at breaking the political deadlock caused by Tobruk’s rejection of Libya’s UN-backed national unity government.
Libya has been wracked by turmoil since 2011, when a bloody uprising ended with the ouster and death of longtime strongman Muammar Gaddafi after 42 years in power.
In the wake of the uprising, the country’s stark political divisions yielded two rival seats of government, one in Tobruk and the other in capital Tripoli.
In an effort to resolve the political standoff, Libya’s rival governments signed a UN-backed agreement in late 2015 in the Moroccan city of Skhirat establishing a government of national unity.
