Libyan parliament due to consider whether to back UN-recognised government of national accord or defer decision

The British foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, has visited Tripoli and offered £10m in support of the new government of national accord (GNA), saying the UK stands ready to help train Libyan state institutions.



His visit on Monday came as the Libyan elected parliament broke up in chaos after failing to consider whether to back the new government and postponing the decision until next Monday. The west is desperate for the parliament to back the UN-supported GNA and start the process of forming a unity government after months of delay that Islamic State has used to strengthen its base in the north of the country.

Hammond hinted after meeting the new prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj, that he will support the GNA regardless of the lack of a parliamentary vote. The GNA arrived in the capital three weeks ago.



Hammond and Sarraj were due to brief by video link a meeting of EU foreign and defence minsters in Brussels called to discuss how to further support the UN-recognised Libyan government battling to establish its authority in Tripoli.

“We’re dealing with the [Sarraj] government already,” Hammond said. “We recognise the government and we’re working with the government. We want to see the house of representatives [the Tobruk-based parliament, HoR] deliver on its obligations in the Libya political agreement”.

There are political tensions over the extent to which western troops will enter the country either to train a Libyan national army or help deter smugglers trying to take refugees from the coast to Europe. Formally any request for western help is dependent on the parliament recognising the GNA.

The Libya political agreement, drawn up by a UN-chaired commission, stipulates that it must be agreed by the elected parliament in Tobruk to become law. A total of 100 Tobruk MPs signed a letter in February saying they were in favour of the agreement, but had not been allowed to vote.

But parliamentary speaker Aguila Saleh has signalled opposition to clauses in the agreement that would remove eastern army commander Khalifa Haftar from his post.

Last week Saleh accused UN envoy Martin Kobler of acting like a “governor” in trying to impose the deal. The two men met on Monday in Tobruk to try to resolve the parliamentary deadlock.

This has presented western officials with the dilemma of whether to wait weeks or months for agreement, or press ahead with support for the new government without its legal framework in place. “We would like the HoR to come on board, that is the position,” said one Whitehall official.



But the west fears the continued political vacuum is allowing Isis to gain influence in the country, leading to an increase in the number of refugees trying to cross to Europe from the Libyan coast with the help of smugglers.

In the Commons the defence secretary, Michael Fallon, denied he was planning to deploy UK combat troops to Libya, and added: “If we are in the future to deploy military forces in a combat role into a conflict zone, we would of course, as the prime minister has made clear, come to this House first.”

But he also released a written statement giving ministers greater flexibility over the circumstances in which British troops could be despatched without the prior approval of MPs. He said he did not want the “government to be artificially constrained from keeping the country safe”.



Hammond has also been under pressure from MPs to clarify UK military intentions, amid signs David Cameron could not win a Commons vote to send troops to Libya in any conflict-related role.

Hammond’s visit to Tripoli was the first by a British minister to the country since Cameron spent a day in the country in January 2013.

“Britain and its allies fully support prime minister Fayez Sarraj and his government as they restore peace and stability to the whole of Libya. We stand ready to provide further assistance to Libya and its people,” Hammond said in a statement released by the Foreign Office.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Cameron looks out over Tripoli during his visit to Libya in 2013. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Sarraj’s unity government was formed under a UN-backed power-sharing deal in December . Talks have been ongoing between the government and the west about how it can best help the government with humanitarian military and fiscal support. A package of support, the Libyan National Assistance Mission, has been prepared including training a Libyan national army, probably in Tunisia. A separate EU package focused on support for police is being prepared.

Barack Obama is expected to discuss the Libyan crisis when he meets Cameron in London on Friday after meeting senior figures in the Gulf earlier in the week.

Obama has described the Libyan intervention as his worst foreign policy mistake of his presidency, and has criticised a distracted Cameron for failing to follow through after the military intervention in 2011 that led to the downfall of Colonel Gaddafi. Cameron has not admitted error over the intervention, and has said the Libyan people did not take up the chance of peace offered to them.

EU ministers, largely led by the Italian government, are concerned by signs that the number of refugees leaving Libya for Europe is increasing.

EU naval assets including the Royal Navy survey ship HMS Enterprise plan to extend Operation Sophia, the EU campaign against migrant smugglers, probably by taking action closer to the Libyan coastline with the agreement of the Libyan government.

David Cameron under pressure to come clean over plans to send British troops to Libya Read more

The French foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, who visited Libya on Saturday with his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, told reporters in Luxembourg that Libyan and international support was “indispensible” to restore stability.

He said the EU ministers would discuss steps to stop migrant smuggling and arms trafficking.

The EU has prepared an aid package of €100m (£78m) for economic, humanitarian and development issues in Libya. It has also said it is ready to help train police and coastguard and to fight extremists.

The increase in the number of refugees is in part due to an expansion in Libya of Isis, which has set up a bastion 185 miles away from Italy across the Mediterranean.