Libya’s Rival Govts Start UN-Backed Talks in Egypt

Libya's Fathi Bashagha, who was appointed prime minister by the eastern-based parliament this month, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tunis, Tunisia March 30, 2022. (Reuters)
Libya's Fathi Bashagha, who was appointed prime minister by the eastern-based parliament this month, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tunis, Tunisia March 30, 2022. (Reuters)
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Libya’s Rival Govts Start UN-Backed Talks in Egypt

Libya's Fathi Bashagha, who was appointed prime minister by the eastern-based parliament this month, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tunis, Tunisia March 30, 2022. (Reuters)
Libya's Fathi Bashagha, who was appointed prime minister by the eastern-based parliament this month, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tunis, Tunisia March 30, 2022. (Reuters)

Representatives of Libya's two rival governments began talks in Egypt on Wednesday aimed at reaching agreement on holding national elections, the United Nations Mission in Libya said.

Libya has had two competing governments since March when the eastern-based parliament appointed Fathi Bashagha to replace the Tripoli-based prime minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, renewing a standoff between the east and west of the country.

Dbeibah, who was chosen as interim prime minister a year ago in UN-backed talks, has refused to cede power to Bashagha.

"The ultimate solution to the issues that continue to plague Libya is through elections, held on a solid constitutional basis and electoral framework that provides the guard rails for an electoral process," UN Libya adviser Stephanie Williams told the opening session of the talks in Cairo.

Williams, supported by Western countries, has been seeking to resolve a political impasse since a scheduled election collapsed days before the vote was due to take place in December, amid arguments over the rules.

Delegates from the eastern-based parliament and the Tripoli-based High State Council named 12 members of each chamber to participate in the talks, which parliament spokesman Abdullah Belhaiq said will continue until April 20.

The parliament, elected in 2014, is recognized internationally through a 2015 political agreement that also recognized the High State Council as a legislative chamber formed from members of a previous parliament elected in 2012.

The planned election is part of a UN-endorsed peace process aimed at ending a decade of chaos since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted Moammar al-Gaddafi and reunifying the country.

"You have a critical role to play in making your voice heard in support of your 2.8 million fellow Libyan citizens who have registered to vote," Williams said.



No Armed Groups Allowed in Lebanon, President Tells Hezbollah’s Ally Iran

In this photo, released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, right, meets with Iranian Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani, at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)
In this photo, released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, right, meets with Iranian Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani, at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)
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No Armed Groups Allowed in Lebanon, President Tells Hezbollah’s Ally Iran

In this photo, released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, right, meets with Iranian Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani, at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)
In this photo, released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, right, meets with Iranian Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani, at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)

No group in Lebanon is permitted to bear arms or rely on foreign backing, its president told a visiting senior Iranian official on Wednesday after the cabinet approved the goals of a US-backed roadmap to disarm the Iran-aligned Hezbollah group. 

During a meeting in Beirut with Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's top security body, Joseph Aoun warned against foreign interference in Lebanon's internal affairs, saying the country was open to cooperation with Iran but only within the bounds of national sovereignty and mutual respect. 

Larijani said the Islamic Republic supports Lebanon’s sovereignty and does not interfere in its decision-making. 

"Any decision taken by the Lebanese government in consultation with the resistance is respected by us," he said after separate talks with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, whose Amal movement is an ally of Hezbollah. 

By "resistance", Larijani was alluding to Hezbollah, which was founded in 1982, grew into a "state-within-a-state" force better armed than the Lebanese army and has repeatedly fought Israel over the decades. 

"Iran didn't bring any plan to Lebanon, the US did. Those intervening in Lebanese affairs are those dictating plans and deadlines", said Larijani. 

He said Lebanon should not "mix its enemies with its friends - your enemy is Israel, your friend is the resistance ... I recommend to Lebanon to always appreciate the value of resistance." 

Later on Wednesday, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said after meeting Larijani that recent remarks on Lebanon by Iranian officials including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi were totally rejected by his government. He said the comments constituted a "violation" of the principle of mutual state sovereignty. 

Last week, Araghchi said Tehran supported any decision Hezbollah made and this was not the first attempt to strip the group of its arsenal. 

Ali Akbar Velayati, top adviser to Iran's supreme leader, also criticized the Lebanese government's move on disarmament. "If Hezbollah lays down its weapons, who will defend the lives, property, and honor of the Lebanese?" he said. 

The US submitted a plan through President Donald Trump's envoy to the region, Tom Barrack, setting out the most detailed steps yet for disarming Hezbollah, which has rejected mounting calls to disarm since its devastating war with Israel last year. 

Hezbollah has rejected repeated calls to relinquish its weaponry although it was seriously weakened in the war, with Israel killing most of its leadership in airstrikes and bombings. 

It was the climax of a conflict that began in October 2023 when the group opened fire at Israeli positions along Lebanon's southern frontier in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas at the start of the Gaza war. 

Aoun also said recent remarks by some Iranian officials had not been helpful, and reaffirmed that the Lebanese state and its armed forces were solely responsible for protecting all citizens.