By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 22 August 2014:
The Libyan government reacted yesterday to the bans imposed by both the Tunisian and Egyptian . . .[restrict]authorities on flights originating from Mitiga and Misrata airports.
In an official statement released yesterday, the Libyan government said that it had received notification from both the Tunisian and Egyptian authorities informing it of the flight bans as a result of security incursions at the airports and in line with the protection of Egypt’s and Tunisia’s national security.
Whilst the Libyan government assures of its concern for the protection of the security of its two neighbours, the Libyan government assures its readiness to offer all the guarantees and to take all possible steps through its civil aviation and security agencies in order to protect the two airports in a manner that would allow for the restarting of flights from Tunisia and Egypt in line with internationally agreed safety standards, the statement said.
The Libyan government has started immediate contact with authorities in Egypt and Tunisia in order to implement the necessary coordination with this regard.
At the same time, the Libyan government statement continued, the Libyan government calls on all to cooperate in projecting our airports in an appropriate manner in order to limit the dangers preventing the aviation movement from our airports and preventing the delay of the interest of our citizens and our travelers in these difficult circumstances that the nation is going through, the statement concluded.
It is notable that the government statement neither confirmed nor denied that either airport was under its total control. Equally, its statement “the Libyan government calls on all to cooperate in projecting our airports in an appropriate manner ” could be seen as coded message for the various militias or non central state authorities controlling Mitiga and Misrata airports – to hand them over to central authority control.
It will also be recalled, however, that no less than the Caretaker Prime Minister himself, Abdullah Thinni, was prevented from boarding a plane from Mitiga airport headed to eastern Libya as part of the effort of opponents of the newly elected House of Representatives to prevent the Prime Minister from attending its inauguration at the beginning of this month.
Mitiga civilian airport and air force base complex had been handed back to the state three times. In an interview on Al-Assema TV two days ago, Justice Minister Salah Maraghny complained how the militias controlling Mitiga would “call us to handover (the airport) and then they come back to take it over”.
Mitiga airport has been under the control of the Special Deterrent Force headed by the Islamist Abdel Rauf Kara.
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