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 Hours before parliament met in the eastern city of Tobruk, heavy
artillery and rocket fire bombarded southern and western Tripoli,
where Islamist-leaning Misrata brigades have fought for three weeks
with rival militias allied with the town of Zintan.
Lawmakers gathered in a heavily guarded hotel in Tobruk because
three weeks of fighting in Tripoli and Benghazi had made Libya's two
main cities unsafe for the parliamentary session.
Western nations, which have mostly pulled their diplomats out of the
North African country due to the fighting, hope that the new
assembly can nudge the warring factions toward a ceasefire and
negotiations to end a political deadlock.
Elected in June, the House of Representatives replaces the General
National Congress (GNC) after a vote which, analysts said, eroded
the political dominance that Islamist factions linked to the Muslim
Brotherhood had in the legislature.
In a sign of Libya's deepening polarization, the Islamist former GNC
president and a group of current and ex-GNC lawmakers rejected the
Tobruk session as unconstitutional, setting the stage for more
political infighting.
"A swift transition from the GNC to the new parliament is vital
because the country is in turmoil," Azzedine al-Awami, the former
deputy GNC chief, said at the first session.
"We hope all Libyans stand together to put our country's best
interests first."
Justice Minister Saleh al-Marghani, standing in for the prime
minister, who was attending a summit of African and U.S. leaders in
Washington urged lawmakers to form a unity government.
Out of 188 elected lawmakers, 158 were sworn in during the session
in Tobruk. They then elected Aguila Saleh Iissa as the House's
president. Saleh is seen as a jurist and had occupied many judicial
positions during the time of Gaddafi.
DIVISIONS
The United States, Britain, France, Italy and Germany quickly issued
a joint call for parties to accept a ceasefire and a dialogue
supported by the United Nations, and to recognize the authority of
the parliament's elected representatives.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, meeting with Libyan Prime
Minister Abdullah al-Thinni during the summit in Washington, said it
was a "critical time" for Libya.
"Libya’s challenges can really only be solved by Libyans themselves,
but we are committed to stand by them as they engage in the
difficult work of doing so," Kerry said.
He said the United States was committed to returning diplomats to
its embassy in Tripoli "as soon as the security situation allows."
But, underscoring the divisions over the legitimacy of the new
assembly, in Tripoli outgoing GNC President Nouri Abusahmain, an
Islamist leader, rejected the Tobruk meeting because of the way it
had been held and the location of the session.
It was not immediately clear how much support his statement would
generate or its impact on armed factions allied with the Islamist
political leadership. Most Islamist-leaning lawmakers and ex-GNC
members had stayed away from Tobruk.
More than 200 people have been killed in the recent fighting in
Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi. Clashes have closed off
most international flights, damaged Tripoli's main airport and sent
foreign diplomats and workers fleeing abroad.
The battle for the airport is part of a wider political struggle
between two loose factions of ex-rebels and their political allies
who once fought together against Gaddafi, but whose rivalries
exploded over the spoils of postwar Libya.
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On one side are the Zintan brigades - based in the city some 130 km
(80 miles) southwest of Tripoli - with their anti-Islamist Qaaqaa
and Al-Sawaiq fighters, including some ex-Gaddafi forces, and
political allies who say they are a bulwark against Islamist
extremists taking over Libya.
Against them are fighters loyal to the western port of Misrata who
are allied with the Islamist Justice and Construction party, an arm
of the Muslim Brotherhood, who say they are fighting to purge
ex-Gaddafi elements. OIL OUTPUT DROPS
In a worrying development for Libya's budget, the country's lifeline
oil production has slipped to 450,000 barrels per day (bpd)from
500,000 bpd a week ago, the National Oil Corp said on Monday,
without explaining why output had fallen.
Even the previous figure is well below the 1.4 million bpd Libya
produced a year ago, before strikes and blockades cut output and
exports from the OPEC state.
Britain was closing its embassy operations on Monday, one of the
last foreign governments to pull out its diplomatic staff, following
the evacuation of the United States and the United Nations after the
fighting erupted in Tripoli.
A Royal Navy ship on Sunday evacuated more than 100 British
citizens, Libyan families and some foreign nationals. Some diplomats
crossed by road into neighboring Tunisia.
With its national army still in formation, Libya's fragile
government has long struggled against the power of the militias,
which have skirmished in parts of the capital since 2011.
Many of the militia brigades are on the government payroll, approved
by competing factions in ministries and the parliament, but are
often more loyal to commanders, political allies or regions than to
the Libyan state.
The General National Congress was stormed numerous times by
different militia brigades trying to pressure lawmakers on political
decisions or to demand that it dissolve.
Most of Tripoli has stayed largely calm, with fighting mainly
restricted to the de facto front lines in the south and parts of the
west of the city. Fuel prices have soared on the black market as
fighting has caused shortages.
In Benghazi, an alliance of Islamist fighters and ex-rebels have
joined together to battle Libyan armed forces, seizing a special
forces military base last week and pushing the army outside the
city.
Those Islamists, from the Ansar al-Sharia group, are branded a
terrorist organization by Washington and have been blamed for a 2012
attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi in which the U.S. ambassador
and three other Americans died.
(Additional reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli in Tobruk, Ahmed Elumami
in Benghazi and Heba al-Shibani in Tripoli; Writing by Patrick
Markey; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Jonathan Oatis)
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