By Moutaz Ali.
Tripoli, 13 January 2017:
The Government of National Accord’s defence minister, Colonel Mahdi Al-Barghathi, has appointed Colonel Mohamed Al-Ghasri, the spokesperson of the Bunyan Marsous Operations Room, as spokesman for his ministry.
In his first statement, just a few hours following the promotion, Ghasri told a Libyan TV channel based in Istanbul and close to Muslim Brotherhood that the GNA would appoint a a chief-of-staff for the Libyan army within the next few days.
The objective was to to unite the east and west of Libya under one military authority, he explained.
“We are calling for all the Libyan army factions to unite under one general leader. His name will be announced in the next few days,” he said.
A fortnight ago, Presidency Council deputy Fathi Majbri in his capacity as acting head of the PC unilaterally appointed Salem Juha as chief-of-staff. It was one of several controversial appointments made by Majbri while Faiez Serraj was away at a family wedding, and they triggered the resignation of Musa Koni from the PC.
Serraj reversed them on his return but has been unable to persuade Koni to rejoin.
As far as the House of Representatives in concerned, however, Major-General Abdul Razzak Al-Nazhouri is chief-of-staff although it appointed Khalifa Hafter over him as general commander of the Libyan armed forces and subsequently a field marshal.
