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By Libya Herald reporter.
Tripoli, 7 July 2015:
Nuri Abu Sahmain, the head of the continuing General National Congress, has approved plans to . . .[restrict]reorganise the Libyan army into 11 brigades located across the country. According to the Tripoli offices of the Libyan news agency LANA, a resolution approving the reorganisation was adopted by the GNC. It was then signed at a ceremony attended by Tripoli “prime minister” Khalifa Ghwell in his role as its defence minister.
As president of the GNC, Abu Sahmain is regarded by Libya Dawn and its supporters as supreme commander of the Libyan armed forces. At the session, he was quoted saying that the move would create a more effective army, allowing for it to be better trained and organised, and that its ranks would be open to the regular army and the revolutionaries.
The decision is, however, seen as largely meaningly gesture in the current fractured state of Libyan politics, given that the forces under Abu Sahmain’s authority are only in the west and south, that it is a nominal authority in the best of cases and that, with the local reconciliation movement spreading in both areas, it also appears a diminishing authority.
It also indicates, however, that Abu Sahmain, the GNC and the Ghwell “government” are turning their backs on the UN-brokered Diloague process and the recent drafts provided by UNSMIL. In none of them are Congress’s decisions viewed as legitimate once a Government of National Accord is established. [/restrict]
