Khaled al-Mishri, head of the High Council of State, stated that the council immediately responded to demonstrators’ demands to overthrow the Government of National Unity by explicitly declaring its lack of legitimacy to continue under the leadership of Abdul Hamid Dabaiba. Al-Mishri indicated that this government is now popularly rejected and legally expired.
Al-Mishri also drew attention to the security breakdown in Tripoli following the killing of Major General Abdul Ghani al-Kikli, expressing surprise at Dabaiba’s alleged confession to the killing, given al-Kikli was a major general in security apparatuses directly subordinate to the Presidential Council.
Al-Mishri further asserted that all those surrounding Dabaiba are from militias, and that Dabaiba attempts to manage these militias rather than combat them, strengthening his loyalists while fighting his opponents using state funds, according to his statement.
During a press conference, al-Mishri explained that “Dabaiba’s government has lost most of its ministers either through resignation or other reasons.” He added: “It is well-known in all political systems that if a government loses two or three important ministers, its head should resign. But we have an anomalous situation, as some ministers have been assigned four or five portfolios, foremost among them Abdul Hamid Dabaiba himself, who has tasked himself with the premiership, defence ministry, foreign ministry, and other sovereign ministries.”
Al-Mishri also noted the presence of ministers in the Government of National Unity whose competencies do not exceed managing a school, questioning how they assumed senior ministerial positions.
Furthermore, al-Mishri addressed Ali Reda al-Abed’s assumption of the labour, health, civil service, and education portfolios. He stated that al-Abed’s true place is trial and imprisonment after his visit days earlier to the occupied territories, questioning how he managed to enter Palestine without obtaining approval from what al-Mishri referred to as the “Zionist entity”.
Al-Mishri affirmed his outright rejection of Dabaiba’s government, as well as the Libyan government previously headed by Fathi Bashagha or currently by Osama Hammad, due to the lack of consensus on them. This, he stressed, has created an executive vacuum, highlighting the urgent necessity for a unified government.
He added that the first step towards holding elections is the formation of a unified government, asserting that there is no objection to this being done under the auspices of the United Nations.