The Speaker of the House of Representatives in Tobruk, eastern Libya, Aqila Saleh, is running for the new unified executive authority as part of the roadmap of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) to prepare for general elections in December 2021.
On face value, Saleh is just another politician trying his luck to become one of the new Presidential Council three members, but with a very simple look at Saleh’s public rather than private agenda, everyone can see the gruesome support he lent to warlord Khalifa Haftar and his multinational militias as well as foreign mercenaries to wage wars in Benghazi, Derna and most recently in Tripoli.
Saleh, who has always been a henchman for Haftar and sanctioned all Haftar’s military coups and wars since 2014, said in his interview by the LPDF members in Geneva that he is running for the Presidential Council to help unify Libya and reconcile the people, smiling and saying: “The war on Tripoli was a mistake.”
Saleh said all of the 7000 Libyans from eastern region who were killed trying to destroy Tripoli and kill fellow Libyans in the western region were a mistake, and the killing of civilians and fighters from Tripoli and other western cities was a mistake.
Saleh smiled and said the encroachment on Libya’s sovereignty by enlisting support from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and allowing mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group and Sudanese as well as other rebel movements to be positioned inside Libya and fight other Libyans for the sake of power was a mistake, and only now he fathomed just when he chose to run for a political position!
A mistake it was, Saleh says. A phrase that went viral on social media in Libya with many Libyan activists and ordinary people denouncing the way Saleh presented himself to the LPDF as a peace and reconciliation man, when in fact, he was urging for the destruction of all western Libyan cities and killing of all civilians living in the region just because they opposed Haftar’s military rule!
