Libya’s Tripoli-based government seeks Algerian support

ALGIERS

A senior official of Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) has called on Algeria to support it against renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar.

“We expect Algeria to demonstrate a strong presence for the resolution of the Libyan crisis,” Ahmed Maiteeq, vice president of the GNA's Presidential Council, told Algerian state-run television after a meeting Thursday with Algeria’s interim president Abdelkader Bensalah in the capital, Algiers.

"We know that Algeria takes the side of the people of Libya and supports the Libyan people's demands for the establishment of a civil state, a new constitution and holding democratic elections," Maiteeq said.

Referring to the long border and important historical relations between the two countries, Maiteeq added that “the security of Algeria is the security Libya”.

Following two weeks of intermittent fighting near Tripoli that has left scores dead, forces loyal to Haftar, who is affiliated with a rival government based in eastern Libya, have so far failed to capture the capital.

Libya has remained beset by turmoil since long-serving leader Muammar Gaddafi was ousted and killed in a bloody NATO-backed uprising in 2011.

Since then, the country has seen the emergence of two rival seats of power: one in eastern Libya, to which Haftar is affiliated, and another in Tripoli, which enjoys UN recognition.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz