By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 5 July 2014:
Mohamed Sawan, the leader of the Justice and Construction Party, has said that the government . . .[restrict]must make clear where its stands on Operation Dignity, being conducted by forces in Benghazi under the control of General Khalifa Hafter.
On Thursday evening, following a meeting with party leaders, Sawan issued a statement condemning what he described as the government’s silence on the operation.
“It has to make it clear where it stands in relation to Operation Dignity,” Husam Al-Naili, the party’s head of media, told the Libya Herald. “There has been nothing clear-cut from it about Hafter forces. We’ve said all the time that the war against terrorism has to be under the government’s control.”
His party, he said was looking to create a law on action against terrorism and was planning to meet with other parties and groups to discus it.
Sawan’s demand came immediately after Thursday’s handover of Sidra and Ras Lanuf oil terminals which was the result of April’s agreement between the government and Ibrahim Jadhran. There are suggestions in Tripoli that although the government has condemned the retired general and his action in Benghazi on several occasions, seeing him as a threat to its legitimacy, it may do a similar deal with him, thereby legitimising the campaign against Ansar Al-Sharia, which it has condemned as a terrorist organisation. [/restrict]