Libya s rogue general to run for President in 2018

Dubai May 3 (IANS/AKI) Libya s powerful eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar will run for President in March 2018 under an accord he reached with Prime Minister Fayez al-Seraj in the UAE it was reported on Wednesday.

The two rival leaders had agreed during a rare face-to-face meeting on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in March 2018 and to nominate Haftar as Libya s president the Libyan Express newspaper cited unnamed sources as saying.

Egypt s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was due to arrive in the UAE on Wednesday to cement the new agreement and give his support for a peaceful solution to Libya s conflict according to the sources.

The accord includes uniting Libya s myriad of military factions under the command of the Presidential Council headed by Seraj fighting terrorism in all of its forms across the country and reshuffling Seraj s UN-backed government according to document cited by the Libya Observer.

This agreement will come into effect as soon as its is signed by Seraj and Haftar.

A statement by the UAE Foreign Ministry on Wednesday - the first official word on Tuesday s talks - said Haftar and Seraj had achieved a significant breakthrough.

The UAE believes that any solution that brings stability to Libya should come from and be supported by the Libyans and should be purely based on Libyan-Libyan dialogue the Foreign Ministry said.

--IANS/AKI
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