CAIRO, April 28. /TASS/. The Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar assumes control of the country’s government, the LNA commander said in a video address to the nation late on Monday, according to Sky News Arabia.
"The General Command of the armed forces assumes the governance of the country and announces the termination of the Skhirat agreement," he said. "Despite the heavy burden of responsibility, we accept the will of the people and the mandate they had delegated."
He pledged that LNA would seek to establish permanent civic institutions in line with the people’s will.
"People must have control over their fate and to choose their future by democratic means," Haftar said. "From the very first day, our goal was to protect the Libyan people’s will."
He claimed that the UN-brokered Skhirat agreement had put the country in peril, but "has become a thing of the dark past."
The Skhirat Agreement, also known as the Libyan Political Agreement, was signed in Morocco’s Skhirat in December 2015. It is based on the UN peace plan, that envisages the creation of the Government of National Accord and the Presidential Council. Both bodies are based in Tripoli and are led by Fayez al-Sarraj.
On January 19, an international high-level conference on Libya took place in Berlin, with at least ten heads of state and government attending the event including Russian President Vladimir Putin. The conference’s final communique includes a call to ceasefire, as well as the call for foreign countries to refrain from intervening in Libya’s affairs, while it also proposes creation of a single government and launch of reforms to restore statehood that was demolished by NATO almost ten years ago. The conflict sides also agreed to establish a special ceasefire monitoring commission.