ROME: Libya’s prime minister has said he is confident that he can unify his war-torn country.
“Before (the) 2011 (revolution), Libya was a united country. I am convinced that it will go back to being united again,” Abdul Hamid Dbeibah told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Libya’s new unity government emerged from a UN-sponsored process launched in November in Tunis.
“Each of our regions, tribes and cities have only thought about their own particular interests. The absence of the central state boosted tribalism,” said Dbeibah.
“We ended up having three parallel governments, two parliaments, two central banks, several micro-agencies for oil and so on for all national institutions. This must come to an end.”
However, Dbeibah stressed that centralization of powers is not what he is seeking. “I prefer to talk of a better distribution of resources and power instead,” he said.
“We will reunite the institutions. In less than a month, we have already completed 80 percent of this process. The very hard task now is creating a single national army.”
Dbeibah said militias “must be dissolved” and integrated “into our security forces or police,” and “ministries and public companies must absorb all those militiamen who are eager lay down their weapons.”
He added: “Economic development is the solution to military tensions. We will talk about business, not weapons. We will work with anyone who helps to rebuild, no matter where they come from.”
In this context, he said Italy remains a “central partner,” and Europe is “vital” to the new Libya as “it is opening its arms to us.”
Dbeibah said the solution to the migrant crisis “can only come from deep cooperation between us and Europe. European countries must sit at the table with us to protect our borders, but also to alleviate the suffering of those who escape from hunger, war and poverty.”
He added: “We have to see migration also from a humanitarian perspective, not just geopolitical. Countries from where people are fleeing must be helped. People flee from Syria to escape the war; if the war ends, they will certainly go back home.”
