Major General Ahmed Al-Mismari, Spokesman for the Libyan National Army (LNA), said that they “are not a party to any political conflict in the country.”
In press statements to Al-Ittihad, Al-Mismari added that the army “does not support one party at the expense of the other.” He warned that the “political crisis in Libya affects the work of the armed forces, especially in their battle against terrorism.”
The military official stressed that the “main task of the Libyan army is to fight terrorism and maintain the security and stability of the state.” He pointed out that the LNA “is capable of unifying the national institution. The interventions carried out by some political and extremist entities represented by the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ are trying to abort these efforts.”
He explained that such groups are “intensifying their efforts to obstruct all efforts aimed at unifying the Libyan military institution.”
Al-Mismari added that eliminating the influence of armed militias in western Libya will greatly contribute to unifying the institution of the national army. “If this is achieved, the military institution will be the first to be unified in the country, and protect the country,” he said.
The Spokesman noted that the first stage of forming a Libyan national army took place on 9 August 1940, to liberate the country from Italian occupation. He confirmed that the main task of any army is to protect the state, its independence and freedom, and to resist any security breaches in the country.
He explained that “the third and final establishment took place in 2014, to liberate Libya from terrorism, crime, and indiscriminate weapons, and to reject foreign plots against the country.”