UN Announces Government of National Unity for Divided Libya

[Purveyor]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS OCT. 8, 2015, 7:01 P.M. E.D.T.

SKHIRAT, Morocco — The U.N. envoy for Libya has announced a national unity government for Libya after months of difficult talks between the north African country's two rival governments.

Bernardino Leon told a press conference late Thursday that the names of candidates for the national unity government have been decided.

The announcement is a step toward stitching together the oil-rich but chaotic country that fell apart after the overthrow of former dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The country has been split between an Islamist-backed government based in Tripoli and an internationally recognized government in the country's east.

Leon said the prime minister for the new government is Fayez Sarraj.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/10/08/world/middleeast/ap-ml-libya.html?_r=0

[uawchild]

1. How Islamist is that exactly?

"The country has been split between an Islamist-backed government based in Tripoli and an internationally recognized government in the country's east."

OK, is Islamist being used as a coded pejorative here? How "islamist" is that government faction in Libya? Saudi Arabia level Islamist? Or ISIS level Islamist? Or Muslim Brotherhood level Islamist? Or Nato ally Turkey level Islamist?

[joshcryer]

3. Muslim Brotherhood level Islamist with Hamas-style sympathies.

Libya's elections in 2014 due to low voter turnout put the Muslim Brotherhood in power in Tripoli, they led a coup, ousted the moderates, and then set up their own government (under the name Libya Dawn).

Libya Dawn allows Ansar al-Sharia free reign in Misrata and are effective allies.

The Council of Deputies (eastern government) is led (as in the army is led) by CIA a backed guy and generally wants to eradicate all of Libya of the Muslim Brotherhood and any fundamentalist islamists.

Nobody likes ISIS in Libya.

It's actually somewhat ironic that the east, which rose up against Gaddafi, was considered islamist and fundamentalist, while the west, which supported Gaddafi, was considered to be moderate and level headed. And now we're looking at Misrata, (and Sirte, Gaddafi's home town), being the hotbed of absolute tyranny and Tripoli being run by the Muslim Brotherhood (who lost the elections in 2012 and used violence from then on to get power, as is usually the case).

Still a mess there but no worse off than most Latin American countries. This proposal by the UN is actually not terribly surprising news, it's just a continuation of the calming effect that the two ideologically split parts of the country have had to face.

[Fred Sanders]

2. There would then be a "Christian-backed government" in Congress....who writes this stuff?

Oh...AP, again.

Never mind!

This is great news! Peace and diplomacy gets a fraction of the media coverage of war and strife....but aren't both equally important for the media to inform the public of?

Speaking of not being informed....when will the media in America admit their negligence/conspiracy in hiding the extremism and anti-intellectualism fuelled by religious zealotry and systemic political and corporate corruption within the Republocan party?