Libya’s Haftar backs creation of new government in challenge to Tripoli

Libya’s eastern forces under commander Khalifa Haftar support a proposal to set up a new interim government, they said late on Friday, setting up a challenge to the existing administration in Tripoli.
Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) said it supported the recommendations of the 6+6 committee, a group drawn from two legislative chambers that have proposed new electoral laws. It urged the two chambers to agree on a new government.
The committee’s recommendations have been adopted by parts of Libya’s divided political establishment and rejected by others.
It is not clear whether they can eventually form the basis for an election and Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah in Tripoli is sure to oppose the creation of any new government before an election.
Libya has had little peace since a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 and it split in 2014 between warring eastern and western factions, though open conflict has mostly paused since a ceasefire in 2020.