Libya opens new chapter with deal on a unity govt
Fayez Sarraj, outgoing prime minister of the UN-recognized Libyan Government of National Accord, arrives to vote during an election for the Tripoli Municipal Council, in Libya's capital on Saturday.
Libya embarked on Saturday on a new phase of its post-Gaddafi’s transition after the selection of a unity government to lead the country until December elections following a decade of chaos.
In a potential turning point accord widely welcomed by the international community, four new leaders from Libya’s west, east and south now face the task of unifying a nation torn apart by two rival administrations and countless militias.
Abdel Hamid Dbeibah, a 61-year-old engineer, was on Friday selected as interim prime minister by a forum of 75 Libyan delegates at UN-led talks in Switzerland.
It marked the start of a new chapter for the country after the failure of a 2015 UN-brokered deal that established a Government of National Accord headed by Fayez al-Sarraj.
Libya has been mired in violent turmoil with the country riven by divisions between the GNA in Tripoli and a rival administration backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar in the east.
