East Libya authorities rule out talks before Tripoli captured

CAIRO - The head of a parliament aligned with forces trying to seize the Libyan capital Tripoli from the internationally backed government said on Thursday there could be no peace talks until they had captured the city.

Forces led by Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive on Tripoli in early April but the assault has stalled in the face of resistance from local armed groups aligned with the UN-recognised government in Tripoli.

Haftar and his backers say they are trying to free the capital from the yoke of Islamist militias which they blame for destabilising Libya since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.

Haftar's critics allege that he is trying to seize power through force and deepening a conflict between factions based in the east and in the west of the sprawling North African country.

The fighting between the two sides in Tripoli has left at least 653 dead and displaced more than 93,000, according to the United Nations, as well as causing extensive material damage.

Aguila Saleh, head of a parliament that relocated to eastern Libya in 2014 during a previous battle for Tripoli, said "the campaign to liberate Tripoli is not easy".

"More than two million Libyans are living in the capital and these armed groups are using people and buildings as shields," Saleh said in an interview during a visit to Cairo late on Wednesday.

He said that Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) was refraining from using heavy weapons to limit damage to property.

"The army could have carried out a powerful operation and used all kinds of weapons but these are Libyans and we will save any drop of blood, no matter what."

He rejected any proposals for the LNA to withdraw or agree to a ceasefire. "The (military) operation must be resolved. The political solution should in any case come even after the liberation of the Libyan capital," said Saleh.

"If someone could get these groups out peacefully, then the army would return to the barracks," he added, referring to the Tripoli armed groups.

Oil tensions

Haftar's offensive has upended United Nations-led plans to address the Libyan crisis after years of conflict that have left the oil-rich nation divided and caused living standards to plummet. 

The escalation in violence as the rival factions struggle for power is also seen as intensifying the conflict over Libya's oil resources, from which the country's wealth is almost exclusively derived.

Libya's state oil firm said on Thursday that Haftar's forces entered the key Ras Lanuf terminal and commandeered a building and meals for oil workers. However, a spokesman for the LNA denied the presence of its troops at the port. "We expect every day a lie about the army (LNA)," he said.

NOC officials have previously expressed concern that the LNA was trying to export oil from ports under its control, bypassing Tripoli. Eastern officials in turn accuse the Tripoli government of not sharing the oil revenues from fields in eastern Libya.

"A group of around 80 military personnel under the command of Major General Abdullah Nur al-Din al-Hamali entered the port on Wednesday, June 5, 2019," the NOC said in a statement.

"The group has taken over a building within the terminal and is converting it for military use," the NOC said.

"In addition, forces have attempted to fuel a warship, appropriated meals designated for staff, and seized 31 dormitories allocated to Harouge Oil Operations (HOO) employees, the NOC subsidiary operating the port."

Hamali is a senior LNA commander based in the region, which together with the Ras Lanuf and Es Sider oilports is under control of the eastern force. While LNA-allied forces are technically securing the terminal, they are not supposed to interfere with operations.

The NOC said: "The presence of forces inside the terminal represents an unacceptable risk to employees. This renders the terminal a potential military target, thereby risking the destruction of Libyan oil infrastructure - and the resulting economic crisis that would follow."

Late in April, the NOC, which handles oil and gas exports for the whole country, had said several Libyan warships had used the oil port of Ras Lanuf, and that military personnel had entered the nearby Es Sider terminal.

Foreign buyers of Libyan oil so far only deal with NOC Tripoli, but Haftar has set up a parallel oil firm in Benghazi.

In sign of tensions, NOC Benghazi said on Tuesday in a statement the chairman of NOC Tripoli, Mustafa Sanalla, had been relieved of its duties. It also accused him of making "disruptive allegations".

The central bank in Tripoli, which processes the oil and gas revenues, pays civil servants in the whole country but not the LNA.