{"id":117330,"date":"2021-04-05T11:48:45","date_gmt":"2021-04-05T03:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=117330"},"modified":"2021-04-05T11:48:47","modified_gmt":"2021-04-05T03:48:47","slug":"eus-michel-vows-support-to-libyas-interim-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=117330","title":{"rendered":"EU’s Michel vows support to Libya’s interim government"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Libya\u2019s<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Libya\u2019s interim prime minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah (right) meets with European Council President Charles Michel <\/p>\n\n\n\n

TRIPOLI, April 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) —\u00a0European Council President Charles Michel offered support to Libya on a Sunday visit to Tripoli, as the North African nation seeks to end a decade of chaos following a NATO-backed 2011 revolt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We will work with the new government and support it,” Michel said after meeting with interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, who was selected in a UN-sponsored process to lead Libya to Dec\u00a024 elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Libya’s parliament confirmed Dbeibah’s new transitional government last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The European Union actively supports the process of national reconciliation,” Michel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Economic recovery, elections, the fight against illegal immigration … are areas in which the EU can help.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oil-rich Libya has been torn by conflict since the toppling and killing of dictator Muammar Gaddafi\u00a0in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest unity government push is hoped to bring together rival forces, especially the two main camps in the east and west, each supported by foreign powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some 20,000 mercenaries and foreign fighters remained in Libya in early December, according to the United Nations, and a January deadline for their withdrawal passed without any sign of them leaving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calls for them to depart have grown in recent weeks, and Michel urged “all mercenaries and foreign soldiers to quickly leave”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush Sunday repeated Libya’s call for their withdrawal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country is also a major route for migrants trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean, and traffickers have thrived in the lawlessness that followed Gaddafi’s overthrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michel said migration was a “major theme” in the relationship between Libya and the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Italy visited Tripoli in a show of support for the war-torn country’s newly formed government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

France reopened its embassy in Libya last month, and next week Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is expected to visit Tripoli to reopen the country’s embassy there, in a visit coinciding with that of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michel said an EU ambassador would return to the Libyan capital in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also said the EU would donate 50,000 COVID-19 vaccines, which would add to the delivery earlier Sunday of 100,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V jab, the first batch to arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Libyan authorities have officially reported over 160,000 cases of the coronavirus among its seven million population, with more than 2,700 dead. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Libya\u2019s interim prime minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah (right) meets with European Council President Charles Michel TRIPOLI, April 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) —\u00a0European Council President Charles Michel offered support to Libya on a Sunday visit to Tripoli, as the North African nation seeks to end a decade of chaos following a NATO-backed 2011 revolt. “We will work with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":117332,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213,209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117330"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/117332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}