Libyan Prime Minister forms committee to secure Tripoli
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al Dbaiba has formed a committee headed by the Minister of the Interior to secure the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
The Higher Committee for Security Arrangements, comprising a number of military leaders, will oversee the withdrawal and return of all organs and brigades to their official military headquarters, according to a decree issued on Saturday.
The committee includes the deputy minister of defence for regions and military affairs; the head of the Internal Security Service; the deputy minister of justice for the judicial police; as well as the deputy chief of staff of the Libyan army.
The committee also has 11 delegates from the Attorney General's Office; the Defence Ministry's Military Intelligence Department; the Stabilization Support Service; the General Security Agency; the Deterrence and General Intelligence Bodies, Countering Security Threats, Intervention and Control as well as the Fight against Terrorism, and representatives of the 111th and 444th Combat Brigades with at least the rank of colonel.
It will take inventory of all buildings, public headquarters, service and production sites that are controlled and are not under the protection of the Ministry of the Interior to take charge of them immediately.
This is in addition to taking inventorying of private property controlled by entities not under the Ministry of the Interior and returning it to its owners.
The decree stipulates the evacuation of all streets, squares and security checkpoints of any armed formation or group not affiliated with the Interior Ministry.
Regarding prisoners, Mr. Al Dbaiba decided to identify the prisons where they are being detained and submit them to the relevant authorities. The committee is tasked to develop an emergency security plan to support the security directorates in the regions.
He stressed the need to work to submit all land, sea and air border crossings to the competent authorities, in addition to any other tasks that will be assigned to them by the Council of Ministers.
The decision also gave the committee the power to vacate any state seat and form subcommittees to monitor its work, provided that the committee submits weekly reports on what has been achieved and hands them over to the prime minister.
On Saturday, the Interior Ministry announced the start of the implementation of the plan to deploy police security in Tripoli through three components including the return of security and military formations to their headquarters, and the reservation of security barriers on the roads exclusively for the competent agencies affiliated to the ministry, on the condition that the tasks of securing public headquarters and state institutions are entrusted to the Interior Ministry alone.
Libyan caretaker Interior Minister General Imad Al-Trabelsi said on Friday that the security and protection of all institutions in Tripoli will fall solely to the police forces while other security services will return to their headquarters.
According to General Al-Trabelsi, the implementation of the agreement began on Saturday to withdraw the agencies of the institutions and replace them with the police, saying that the implementation will take a week to 10 days.
The Ministry of the Interior announced on Saturday that it had been given the mission of securing the Central Bank of Libya, which is embroiled in controversy following the appointment by the Libyan Presidential Council of a new governor, a decision that has sparked opposition from the Libyan Parliament and the High Council of State.
This situation has led to renewed tension in terms of security, with troop mobilisations likely to trigger an armed conflict.
In addition, the 5+5 Joint Military Committee, composed of equal numbers of senior officers from the Western and Eastern regions examined, during a closed session on Saturday at its permanent headquarters in Sirte, central Libya, the issues related to its work and the results of its previous meetings.
Sources quoted by the Libyan News Agency (LANA) stressed that the committee discussed during the meeting, which comes after more than a year of suspension of its meetings, the development of the security situation in the country, without giving details.
The meeting of the 5+5 Joint Military Committee held in the presence of representatives of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) comes with a view to preserving the ceasefire signed in 2020 in Geneva at a crucial time when there are tensions.
-0- PANA BY/IS/MA 25Aug2024
