US envoy visits Libya in a show of support for interim govt. Joey Hood, a senior US State Department official, met with Libya’s transitional government in Tripoli on Tuesday and called for the removal of all international troops.
“The US opposes all military escalation and all foreign military intervention. We oppose foreign fighters. We oppose proxy forces,” at a press briefing, the acting assistant secretary for Near Eastern relations, the highest-ranking US official to visit Tripoli since 2014, said.
“To that end, we urge all parties involved, including Libyans and foreigners, to completely observe the truce. This includes the removal of all foreign military forces of all types,” Hood stated.
After meeting with Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah and Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush, he said, “The United States’ target is an independent, secure, and unified Libya free of foreign intervention and capable of combating terrorism.”
Rich in petroleum since the overthrow and assassination of tyrant Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, Libya has been ripped apart by civil war.
Rival parties signed a cease-fire in October, kicking off an UN-led process that resulted in the installation of a new transitional government.
Dbeibah’s team is in charge of planning national elections, which are scheduled to take place in December.
“For national reconciliation, an agreement on an electoral road map for the December elections is important,” Hood stated.
Mangoush praised US President Joe Biden’s government for its attempts to end Libya’s decade-long crisis, while still calling for the withdrawal of foreign fighters.
According to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, there has been “no decrease in the number of international fighters or their operations” in Libya.
More than 20,000 foreign soldiers and contractors are thought to be in Libya, including 13,000 Syrians and 11,000 Sudanese, as well as a few hundred Turks and Russians.
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