Military commander, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar has declared himself the ruler of Libya with a popular mandate from the people.
In a televised speech on Monday night, the leader of the Libyan National Army (LNA) announced that the General Command of the Armed Forces had accepted the will of the people to take over management of the country.
The move apparently marginalises an eastern based civilian parliament that had until now been backing the military commander.
In his speech, the commander added that a 2015 deal that produced the United Nations recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), a unity administration based in Tripoli that was formed after years of civil conflict, was null and void.
“We announce our acceptance of the people’s will and mandate and the end of the Skhirat Agreement,” he said.
“The political agreement destroyed the country. We will work to create the conditions for building permanent civic institutions,” he added.
His forces, politically backed by the eastern parliament, nominally a signatory to the 2015 deal itself have been staging an assault on the capital Tripoli since April 2019.
Although the LNA last year managed to advance into the southern suburbs of the city, it lost ground to pro-GNA forces during clashes this month.
The GNA is backed by Turkey, while Haftar is supported by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia.
A Russian source told Reuters on Tuesday that Haftar’s power grab was surprising. The source said the most important thing now was for the military and political decisions reached at a conference in Berlin in January to be implemented by Lybians, with the assistance of the international community.
“We support the continuation of the political process, there is no military solution to the conflict,” it said.