Osama Hammad, the Prime Minister appointed by Libya’s House of Representatives, has blamed the “continuation of the wrong practices” by outgoing UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily for “completely undermining the efforts of reconciliation and dialogue” in the country.
In a statement, Hammad’s Benghazi-based government expressed its welcome for the assignment of American diplomat Stephanie Khoury, the deputy of the outgoing mission, to take on the tasks of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya.
Bathily, who announced his resignation earlier, had used his final briefing to the UN Security Council to criticize what he described as the “selfishness of the current leaders” in Libya. He noted an “intentional rejection by the Libyan parties to hold elections seriously,” and a “stubborn desire to postpone the elections indefinitely.”
Regarding the obstacles to his invitation for a five-party dialogue that did not include Hammad’s government, Bathily said adding a “separate seat” at the table for delegations from the House of Representatives-backed administration would “officially impart the prevailing divisions in Libya.”
Hammad, however, dismissed Bathily’s proposals as “not surprising,” accusing the outgoing UN envoy of having a “limited view of dealing with all parties” and “deliberately ignoring that the Libyan government is the legitimate government entrusted and granted confidence by the House of Representatives.”
The Libyan PM said Bathily’s briefing as a whole “reflects the reality of the inability of the former UN envoy to perform his duties over the past years.” Hammad stressed that his government “still supports any local, regional or international efforts whose primary goal is to reunite the Libyans and end the institutional division,” and “support national reconciliation efforts, and reject wrong practices, under the guise of UN support, and repeat mistakes in choosing who represents the Secretary-General in Libya.”
In his message to incoming UN official Stephanie Khoury, Hammad expressed hope that “she will be up to the level of responsibility and impartiality, and distance herself from personal orientations and interests, and pursue a policy that gathers Libyans on a common word, not a policy of supporting division.”
Hammad’s critical stance toward Bathily is not new – in February, he had described the outgoing envoy as “a person unwelcome in all cities and regions under the administrative control of the Libyan government” after Bathily attacked “Libyan leaders in positions of responsibility” for failing to “respond to the aspirations of the Libyan people.”