عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Washington Backs Libya Parliament Speaker, Calls for Resuming Dialogue

Forces loyal to the LNA patrol the southern city of Sabha on February 9, 2019. (AFP)
Forces loyal to the LNA patrol the southern city of Sabha on February 9, 2019. (AFP)
TT
TT

Washington Backs Libya Parliament Speaker, Calls for Resuming Dialogue

Forces loyal to the LNA patrol the southern city of Sabha on February 9, 2019. (AFP)
Forces loyal to the LNA patrol the southern city of Sabha on February 9, 2019. (AFP)

US Ambassador to Libya Richard Norland held talks with parliament Speaker of the east-based parliament, Aquila Saleh, on the importance of "respect for democratic processes and the need to avoid individual attempts to unilaterally dictate Libya’s political future using armed force."

"They agreed that there is no military solution in Libya, on rejecting an approach of imposing facts on the ground, and on the importance of continuing" negotiations facilitated by the UN mission to Libya, read a US embassy statement after the talks on Thursday.

Saleh congratulated Norland on the confidence placed in him by the United States and noted the importance of shared and constructive engagement between Libya and Washington.

They also discussed the Berlin Conference and the need for all participants to live up to their commitments not to interfere militarily in Libya. Saleh noted in his initiative that the time has come to end infighting among Libyans. Norland highlighted the importance of counter-terrorism and the risk that continued conflict will open space for terrorist elements to regroup across the country, added the statement.

Regarding the Libyan National Army's call for a Ramadan ceasefire, Norland expressed the hope that "building on that statement, the parties could take serious steps for the future of Libyans and return to negotiations under UN auspices for a lasting ceasefire in the 5+5 format, as agreed in Geneva on February 23."

The envoy said Washington encourages all voices genuinely committed to peace and stability in Libya to take part in shaping the country’s political future, and congratulated Saleh on his involvement in this process and its continuation, stressed the statement.

Sources close to Saleh said he may soon meet with LNA commander Khalifa Haftar over an iftar meal. He had on Friday shared iftar with one of his sons.

On Wednesday, the speaker revealed during a local meeting that the "Russians had asked from Haftar to accept a humanitarian truce" in Libya because the situation in the country is "on the verge of collapse".

Leaked details from the meeting showed Saleh discussing a Russian report that spoke of the possibility of the war moving on to a "new phase". He noted that Turkish F-16 jets had struck LNA supply convoys headed to Tarhuna, 90 kilometers east of the capital, Tripoli.

Saleh, who had denied the existence of differences between him and Haftar, added that the Russians also requested the restructuring of the Presidential Council, currently headed by Government of National Accord chief Fayez al-Sarraj. Moscow also demanded a ceasefire in the fighting for Tripoli in line with the Berlin Conference and its call for forming a new Presidential Council.

Moreover, Saleh spoke of Russian information that the UN may likely reaffirm its support for Sarraj's Presidential Council, which was formed in 2015.

On the ground, the GNA announced that its jets had struck a convoy carrying LNA fighters near Nasma. This was the fourth such attack in 24 hours.

A GNA spokesman rejected the LNA's declaration of Ramadan truce, saying: "We do not have a partner for peace."

"Our forces have the right to defend themselves against threats wherever they may be," he stressed.

The LNA had obtained information that the GNA, backed by Turkey, was seeking to launch a major military operation against the army in western Libya.

Unconfirmed reports said a Turkish warship had anchored off Gasr Garabulli, 49 kms east of Tripoli.

The LNA, meanwhile, said it had downed a Turkish drone east of Tripoli shortly after it took off from the Mitiga base.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

In Lebanon, a Family's Memories are Detonated Along With Their Village

Destroyed buildings lie in ruin on Lebanon’s side of the border with Israel, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Mount Addir, northern Israel, November 4, 2024. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura
Destroyed buildings lie in ruin on Lebanon’s side of the border with Israel, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Mount Addir, northern Israel, November 4, 2024. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura
TT
TT

In Lebanon, a Family's Memories are Detonated Along With Their Village

Destroyed buildings lie in ruin on Lebanon’s side of the border with Israel, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Mount Addir, northern Israel, November 4, 2024. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura
Destroyed buildings lie in ruin on Lebanon’s side of the border with Israel, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Mount Addir, northern Israel, November 4, 2024. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura

Ayman Jaber’s memories are rooted in every corner of Mhaibib, the village in southern Lebanon he refers to as his “habibti,” the Arabic word for “beloved.” The root of the village’s name means “the lover” or “the beloved.”
Reminiscing about his childhood sweetheart, the 45-year-old avionics technician talks about how the young pair would meet in a courtyard near his uncle's house, The Associated Press said.
“I used to wait for her there to see her,” Jaber recalls with a smile. "Half of the village knew about us.”
The fond memory contrasts sharply with recent images of his hometown.
Mhaibib, perched on a hill close to the Israeli border, was leveled by a series of explosions on Oct. 16. The Israeli army released a video showing blasts ripping through the village in the Marjayoun province, razing dozens of homes to dust.
The scene has been repeated in villages across southern Lebanon since Israel launched its invasion a month ago with the stated goal of pushing Hezbollah militants back from the border. On Oct. 26, massive explosions in and around Odaisseh sparked an earthquake alert in northern Israel.
Israel says it wants to destroy a massive network of Hezbollah tunnels in the border area. But for the people who have been displaced, the attacks are also destroying a lifetime of memories.
Mhaibib had endured sporadic targeting since Hezbollah and Israeli forces began exchanging fire on Oct. 8 last year.
Jaber was living in Aramoun, just south of Beirut, before the war, and the rest of his family evacuated from Mhaibib after the border skirmishes ignited. Some of them left their possessions behind and sought refuge in Syria. Jaber's father and two sisters, Zeinab and Fatima, moved in with him.
In the living room of their temporary home, the siblings sip Arabic coffee while their father chain-smokes.
“My father breaks my heart. He is 70 years old, frail and has been waiting for over a year to return to Mhaibib,” Zeinab said. “He left his five cows there. He keeps asking, ‘Do you think they’re still alive?’”
Mhaibib was a close-knit rural village, with about 70 historic stone homes lining its narrow streets. Families grew tobacco, wheat, mulukhiyah (jute mallow) and olives, planting them each spring and waking before dawn in the summer to harvest the crops.
Hisham Younes, who runs the environmental organization Green Southerners, says generations of southerners admired Mhaibib for its one-or two-story stone homes, some built by Jaber’s grandfather and his friends.
“Detonating an entire village is a form of collective punishment and war crime. What do they gain from destroying shrines, churches and old homes?” Younes asks.
Abdelmoe’m Shucair, the mayor of neighboring Mays el Jabal, told the Associated Press that the last few dozen families living in Mhaibib fled before the Israeli destruction began, as had residents of surrounding villages.
Jaber's sisters attended school in Mays al-Jabal. That school was also destroyed in a series of massive explosions.
After finishing her studies in Beirut, Zeinab worked in a pharmacy in the neighboring village of Blida. That pharmacy, too, is gone after the Israeli military detonated part of that village. Israeli forces even bulldozed their village cemetery where generations of family members are buried.
“I don’t belong to any political group,” Zeinab says. “Why did my home, my life, have to be taken from me?”
She says she can't bring herself to watch the video of her village’s destruction. “When my brother played it, I ran from the room.”
To process what’s happening, Fatima says she closes her eyes and takes herself back to Mhaibib. She sees the sun setting, vividly painting the sky stretching over their family gatherings on the upstairs patio, framed by their mother’s flowers.
The family painstakingly expanded their home over a decade.
“It took us 10 years to add just one room,” Fatima said. “First, my dad laid the flooring, then the walls, the roof and the glass windows. My mom sold a year’s worth of homemade preserves to furnish it.” She paused. “And it was gone in an instant.”
In the midst of war, Zeinab married quietly. Now she’s six months pregnant. She had hoped to be back in Mhaibib in time for the delivery.
Her brother was born when Mhaibib and other villages in southern Lebanon were under Israeli occupation. Jaber remembers traveling from Beirut to Mhaibib, passing through Israeli checkpoints and a final crossing before entering the village.
“There were security checks and interrogations. The process used to take a full or half a day,” he says. And inside the village, they always felt like they were “under surveillance.”
His family also fled the village during the war with Israel in 2006, and when they returned they found their homes vandalized but still standing. An uncle and a grandmother were among those killed in the 34-day conflict, but a loquat tree the matriarch had planted next to their home endured.
This time, there is no home to return to and even the loquat tree is gone.
Jaber worries Israel will again set up a permanent presence in southern Lebanon and that he won't be able to reconstruct the home he built over the last six years for himself, his wife and their two sons.
“When this war ends, we’ll go back,” Ayman says quietly. “We’ll pitch tents if we have to and stay until we rebuild our houses.”