Renegade General Khalifa Haftar, the commander of Dignity Operation, reiterated on Thursday that the Libyan Political Agreement has become null and void.
“This is non-negotiable; talking about the Libyan Political Agreement now is disgusting.” He declared to his own TV channel “Al-Hadat” on Thursday night.
He said that his army backs the upcoming elections and the democratic process, claiming that his army is the one which convinced the world of the election option to solve the Libyan crisis.
However, he threatened that if the electoral process, which is expected to start in mid-2018, failed; he would declare himself the president of Libya according to the so-called “the popular mandate.”
Earlier this month, Khalifa Haftar’s supporters claimed that they had collected 1.291 million signatures to mandate him as the president of Libya and vowed to disrupt the 2018 elections.
“I salute the unique mandate campaign. We feel that our people are satisfied with us. There is no doubt that if the peaceful transfer of power through free and fair elections is failed, the mandate will become an advanced option that there may be no other options in the political arena.” He remarked.
Critics say Khalifa Haftar and his backers gave up the mandate campaign for the time being after a clear warning from the French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian to Khalifa Haftar to respect the UN-backed political process.
