The head of the Libyan government appointed by the House of Representatives, Osama Hamad, has accused the United Nations of undermining Libya’s independence.
In a speech marking the 72nd anniversary of Libya’s independence, Hamad said that the UN was once a supporter of Libya’s independence, but that it is now “supporting efforts to undermine that independence in indirect ways.”
Hamad accused the UN of “entrenching interference in the country’s internal affairs through its current envoy, who is trying desperately to establish and implement his policies that are biased towards one side at the expense of the other, in order to achieve international desires that are hostile to the Libyan people, which deepens the causes of division and fragmentation.”
Hamad also said that “despite the positions of the House of Representatives and the General Command of the Armed Forces rejecting the plans of the UN mission, it insists on carrying out tours and movements within cities through some ambassadors and diplomatic envoys of some of the countries that support it, which undermines Libyan sovereignty, conflicts with independence, and wastes the blood of the martyrs, including the leader of the martyrs Omar al-Mukhtar.”
Hamad called on all Libyans to “preserve the independence of their state from foreign interference,” and spoke about his vision for resolving the current crisis in the country, stressing that “the solution is Libyan-Libyan.”
Hamad’s attack on the UN and its special representative in Libya, Abdullah Butali, comes after the government was excluded from participating in the five-party meeting in Tobruk that Butali called for, which included the President of the Presidential Council, Mohamed al-Menfi, the Prime Minister of the National Unity Government, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, the President of the Supreme Council of State, Mohamed al-Tekal, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aguila Saleh, and the Commander of the General Command, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
