By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 24 August . . .[restrict]2013:
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya has rejected claims by the Grand Mufti’s office, the Dar Al-Ifta, that it supports the division of the country. It says that it is “most surprised by a recent statement which came from the Dar Al-Ifta on security conditions in the country in which it refers to the ‘United Nations calling for the division of the country’”.
On Wednesday, following a meeting of members of the Dar Al-Ifta council, called to Tripoli by the Grand Mufti to discuss the security situation in the country, his office put out a statement implying that the UN supported the division of Libya. “No group, entity or institution in the country has have the right to use this current time in the absence of law to achieve gains by force,be it through murder, or bombings and violence, or calls for division of the country, or regionalism under any name, or federalism,” the statement read, “because Libyans did not give their lives in order to invite the UN to divide the country”.
In its response, UNSMIL has said that it the inclusion of the UN in the statement was unjustified and unfounded.
It said in a statement issued yesterday, that the UN had not, in any manner whatsoever, called for the splitting of Libya or for a federal state. It firmly supported the country’s unity and respected its national sovereignty.
Attempts to contact the Dar Al-Ifta office for comment today were unsuccessful. [/restrict]
