TRIPOLI
Libya's outgoing General National Congress, the interim parliament, reconvened on Monday and tasked Omar al-Hassi with forming a government of "national salvation."
"Al-Hassi has been unanimously appointed and asked to announce his new government within a week," Omar Humaidan, a spokesman for the Congress, told Anadolu Agency.
The members have also voted to declare a state of emergency in Libya, he added.
Humaidan said the outgoing interim parliament had reconvened "in response to the call of revolutionaries and the Libyan people."
"There are decisive decisions the Congress will be talking within the coming hours to save the country," he asserted.
The Congress, the mandate of which expired earlier this year, stopped meeting after the election of Libya's new parliament, which has since assumed legislative authority.
Humaidan said they recognize the recent elections and the elected legislature but do not recognize the MPs currently meeting in Tobruk as representatives of the parliament.
He also reiterated support for the "Dawn of Libya" operation mounted by militia groups against forces loyal to reneged general Khalifa Haftar.
The Libya Shield, which is widely seen as a pro-Islamist militia, launched the "Dawn of Libya" operation with the stated aim of restoring government buildings and palaces of the former Muammar Gaddafi regime from militiamen who had occupied these sites for the past three years.
Since mid-July, the rival militias of Libya Shield on one hand and Al-Qaaqaa and Al-Sawaaq on the other have been locking horns in and around Tripoli, almost totally destroying the airport – along with several planes – and wreaking havoc in the flashpoint city.
The fighting left dozens dead and hundreds injured.
Libya in general has recently witnessed heavy fighting between a loosely organized army and militias that clung to their weapons following a bloody uprising in 2011 that ended the Gaddafi rule.
By Seif al-Tarabolsi
englishnews@aa.com.tr
www.aa.com.tr/en/world
