TRIPOLI:Libya’s Prime Minister-designate Fathi Bashagha urged his outgoing rival Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh to peacefully hand over power to him amid rising military tensions in Tripoli. Bashagha called on Prime Minister Abdul-Hamed Dbeibah to "resort to peace and avoid war". Political unrest has halted in Libya recently.
"This is a real and patriotic call, and we look forward to your very patriotic reaction to respect the interest of the country," Bashagha wrote to Dbeibah in a letter on Wednesday. Dbeibah, however, disagreed with Bashagha's demand that he cede his position and urged him to have elections "instead of a military coup."
In March, the eastern-based House of Representatives, or Parliament, decided to appoint a new administration headed by Bashagha after withdrawing its support for Dbeibah's Government of National Unity in Tripoli.
Dbeibah declared that he would only cede power to an elected government and rejected the March vote. Concern over the military buildup and rising tension in Libya was voiced by the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Tuesday.
The ongoing mobilisation of forces and threats to use force to settle legitimate claims in Libya are being monitored by the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) with "great concern," UNSMIL said in a statement.
The declaration urged the Libyan parties to use elections as a means of resolving differences.
The UNSMIL said that "the Mission begs for a rapid de-escalation and reiterates that the use of force by any party is inadmissible and will not produce results that secure recognition by the international community." Since the overthrow of late leader Muammar Gaddafi's administration in 2011, the oil-rich nation of North Africa has been in upheaval.
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