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By Hadi Fornaji.
Tripoli 18 November 2014:
Omar Al-Hassi, prime minister of the Tripoli-based antigovernment has stirred up a storm of controversy by . . .[restrict]describing Ansar Al-Sharia as “simple, beautiful and amiable” as well as being engaged in “missionary work”.
The writer of the report in today’s London Times later used social media to point out that the Arabic word that Hassi used has others translations other than simply “beautiful”. This is not however the first time that Hassi has praised Ansar in similar terms.
He also used the interview to repeat his demands that Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Thinni and Operation Dignity’s General Khalifa Hafter should stand trial. He said they were criminals, adding “Those who do not listen the a court order become outlaws and should be stopped”.
It is not clear on what grounds Hassi thinks Thinni should be arrested. Thinni was originally appointed interim premier by the GNC. After an attack on his family home, he announced he was stepping down but then reversed his decision and challenged the GNC’s appointment of his replacement, Misratan Ahmed Maetig.
Early this June the Supreme Court ruled against the GNC and in Thinni’s favour.
The rump of the GNC which appointed Hassi at the end of August was certainly not quorate and therefore, in Hassi’s own terms, his premiership is not legitimate. This means that under the GNC’s rules, Thinni is still prime minister, whatever people may think of the House of Representatives which also appointed him.
Today also saw the GNC meet at its old home by the Rixos Hotel. Members pass a resolution firing Libya’s UN ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi, because he had not accepted the Supreme Court’s ruling that the HoR and the election that brought it to power were unconstitutional, because the vote accepting the electoral law had been taken when there were insufficient members of Congress present.
A week ago in New York, Dabbashi launched a fiece attack on Libya Dawn.This morning’s sitting was broadcast live for 15 minutes but the cameras were trained on the GNC president Nour Abusahmain. GNC spokesman Omar Hmeidan said at a press conference afterwards that there had been 100 members present. However, some of those in the chamber had not wanted to appear on TV because of concerns for the safety of their families. Other sources suggest that there may have been no more than 19 people present.
Hmeidan also said that the GNC was surprised because the international community had not condemned the “terrorist actions in Benghazi, Derna and Kikla”. [/restrict]
