UN, OIC, Arab Parliament condemn deadly Tripoli attack

TRIPOLI/JEDDAH/CAIRO

The UN’s mission in Libya, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the Arab Parliament have all issued separate statements condemning the Tuesday attack on Libya’s Foreign Ministry headquarters in Tripoli which left at least three people dead.

In a statement, UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salama said that terrorism “will not affect the Libyan people’s decision to continue building a viable state and to renounce violence”.

“We will continue to work with the Libyan people to prevent terrorist groups from turning the country into a theater for blind criminality,” Salama said.

The Jeddah-based OIC, for its part, likewise condemned Tuesday’s terrorist attack, for which no group has yet claimed responsibility.

“This deplorable act was aimed at obstructing efforts to achieve national dialogue and destabilize Libya,” OIC Secretary-General Youssef al-Othaimeen said in a separate statement.

He went on to reiterate the OIC’s longstanding stance against “terrorism in all its forms” and the organization’s continued solidarity with Libya’s UN-backed government.

In a third statement, Meshaal al-Salami, chairman of the Arab Parliament (temporarily based in Cairo), declared that "terrorist acts carried out by criminal gangs will not stop Libya from moving its political process forward”.

The Arab Parliament, al-Salami asserted, “remains in full solidarity with Libya and supports the country’s efforts to preserve its security and that of its citizens”.