CENTRAL NEWS
Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), is facing mass protests even after using machine guns to disperse protesters in the streets and squares of the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
Sarraj admitted that “several transgressions have occurred” during the Sunday demonstration, but he blamed the demonstrators who, he said, “did not complete the legal procedures and obtain the authorisations to demonstrate from the concerned authorities so that these authorities could ensure their safety and protect them from intruders, which was exactly what happened yesterday (Sunday).”
He claimed that outsiders “infiltrated the protesters.” The latter, he said, had “very legitimate” demands, but he claimed that some of the infiltrators “were armed and there was vandalism and damage to public and private property,” stressing that such behaviour “could not be tolerated.”
Leave, Leave, Leave!
It was obvious that Sarraj was seeking to deflect the GNA’s responsibility for the attacks on the protesters and for the deterioration of the situation in Tripoli and the entire western region. That is why, barely had he finished his televised speech that the demonstrations ignited again and increased in frequency, acquiring this time the moniker of the “August 23 Uprising”.
The protesters reaffirmed their demands for al-Sarraj’s resignation, chanting “Leave, leave, leave”. Sarraj was given 24 hours to announce his resignation “out of respect for the Libyan people.”
Staged protests
Libyan security sources revealed that Fayez al-Sarraj sought the help of Turkish intelligence stationed in Tripoli to have the spontaneous popular movement infiltrated by individuals loyal to him who would raise demands in line with Turkish interests, and to try and produce a leadership for this movement that would be loyal to Sarraj.
Libyan newspaper Al-Marsad Al-Libi quoted unnamed Libyan security sources as saying that the Turkish Intelligence Division in the capital, Tripoli, held its first meeting on Tuesday at the Maitiga base, followed by another one at the Abu Sitta base, with Libyan leaders of armed groups instructing them to infiltrate the popular uprising and change the course of its political and social demands.
The paper pointed out that Turkish intelligence “was very disturbed by the citizens’ slogans and chants against Turkey’s seizure of Libyan funds and siphoning them from the Government of National Accord, in addition to paying tens of millions to Syrian mercenaries.”
The paper further said that Turkish directives to the militias included deflecting chants and slogans against Sarraj, the Syrian mercenaries and the deterioration of living conditions, into ones demanding the immediate reopening of oil terminals and going back to business as usual there.
SOURCE – The Arab Weekly
