US, Allies to Start Arming Libya’s ‘Unity Govt’

Kerry Insists They Are 'The Only Legitimate One'

by Jason Ditz, 

US and other Western nations are reportedly planning to begin arming Libya’s “unity government,” one of three extent governments in Libya, and the one with by far both the smallest territory and the fewest military forces.

Secretary of State John Kerry met with the prime minister of this government, again, one of three, insisting the US has to start backing the unity government because it is “the only legitimate one in Libya” and has to “start to work.”

Formed earlier this year in Tunisia, the unity government was a government-in-exile for months before sneaking into Tripoli recently. Since then, they hold just a small fraction of this single city. They are one of two Libyan governments formally backed by the UN as “legitimate.”

The US has apparently decided the unity government is more legitimate than the elected Tobruk parliament, however, and the Treasury Department imposed sanctionson the Tobruk parliament’s president last week for not endorsing the unity government as superior to his own.

The initial UN plan was for the “unity government” to bring together the Tobruk and Tripoli parliaments, but instead it seems now the plan is to just anoint them as the “only” government and work to destroy the existing parliaments.

http://news.antiwar.com/2016/05/16/us-allies-to-start-arming-libyas-unity-govt/