By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 8 June 2016:
The president of the State Council, Abdulrahman Sewehli, has demanded that prime minister-designate Faiez Serraj sack . . .[restrict]Libya’s UN ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi for mocking the sacrifice that Libyans were making in the fight against IS.
Dabbashi, who has stayed at the UN in New York despite being sacked twice in January last year and this April by Thinni government, spoke after UNSMIL chief Martin Kobler reported to the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
Dabbashi said that the UN should stop using unrealistic terms and fictitious names that merely complicated the security situation. He instanced Kobler’s reference to “forces controlled by the Government of National Accord” when in fact, he said, they operated outside of state control.
Unless armed groups signed a binding commitment to disarm and agreed to join state institutions, said Dabbashi, they could threaten the GNA .
Dabbashi also warned that after IS was cleared out of Sirte, it could be taken over by Ansar Al-Sharia. He said people needed to know there were plans in place once Sirte had been liberated, including helping townsfolk return, ensuring that all armed groups quit the town and that security was taken over by the state.
Today Sewehli denounced Dabbashi as an insolent “employee” and demanded that Serraj take action against him. He said that the UN ambassador had violated diplomatic conventions and represented himself rather than the Libyan state.
Despite Dabbashi’s double sacking, the UN administration seems content for him to continue in the role. This February he was appointed one of the four 2016 vice-presidents of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) executive board. [/restrict]
