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| Africa North |
| Belhaj Ready to Back Libya Transitional Government |
| 2011-11-29 |
| [Tripoli Post] Abdel Hakim Belhaj ...nom de guerre Abu Abdallah Assadaq, emir of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and a commander of the Tripoli Military Council in the Libyan civil war... might have his critics and perhaps many believed him to be more of an obstacle than an ally to the cabinet of prime minister Abdurrahim el-Keeb as the new Libya transitional government tries to find its feet. However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... he has said he is ready to back the government. Belhaj seemed to be overlooked for the post of defence minister after being regarded as a front runner, but he has once again been reported saying, this time by Rooters, that said he had not put his name forward for any cabinet post. He said he had even been consulted about appointments for the most powerful jobs. "I hope that it (the new government) will be granted all the support needed for it to carry out its tasks. I am aware of certain opinions accusing it of being imbalanced in terms of representing all regions, but we hope that it would be allowed to carry out its duties to render the country stable and secure," Belhaj told Rooters. He went on to say: "As revolutionaries, we are concerned with supporting this government and all the ministers including the defence minister. We will coordinate and cooperate with the defence ministry ... Our relationship with the defence minister is good." Despite the fact that even his supporters were overlooked for top posts, and that the defence minister's post in the new government was handed to the head of a rival militia, his is focussing on helping to put the country on its feet after an eight-month long armed conflict. Having said that however, Belhaj, who heads the Tripoli Military Council, reportedly made up of a heavily-armed force of about 25,000 men, he would not commit to a date for the forces under his control to hand over their weapons to the government. Last week tensions between the rival groups surfaced when Belhaj was briefly jugged at Tripoli International Airport as he set off on a trip abroad, with airport officials, controlled by fighters from Zintan, saying he had a problem with his passport. The problem was resolved with the intervention of National Transitional Council chairman Mustafa Abdul-Jalil who ordered his release. In the interview with Rooters Belhaj refused to answer questions about the airport incident, and asked about tensions between rival groups, he did not answer directly, saying only that opposing views were "very normal in ... (the) democratic atmosphere that the Libyans are living in nowadays." He said he will work with the defence and interior ministries on a mechanism for his forces to hand over their weapons and amalgamate into new government institutions. "You can see that the military presence has receded and this is a positive sign," Belhaj said, adding that it was too early to give a timetable for the handover, and that it was down to the government to create the right conditions for this to happen. He said: "It is not on our agenda right now. This is a two-sided solution ... We call on the government to recruit the revolutionaries into the ministries and public institutions." "We have to wait for the plans and programs of the relevant ministries and the corresponding plans and programmes to be initiated by the revolutionaries," he said. "When the two reach a meeting point (we need) to draft a comprehensive plan, then it would be done." Though speculation is rife that Belhaj is planning to form an Islamist political party that will compete for power in the elections scheduled to take place around the middle of next year, he failed to give details about his plans. "Of course I am also interested in the coming elections just like any other Libyan who is interested in and follows Libyan affairs. We are preparing and are getting ready for the future political project," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |