Bashagha prepares to overthrow Sarraj as conflict of interests destroys GNA

Differences between members of Government of National Accord
(GNA) in Tripoli have escalated, with two camps forming in support of GNA Prime
Minister Fayez al-Sarraj on the one side and Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha
on the other.
It seems that Sarraj is no longer the most profitable bet
for the Turkish agenda in Libya, especially with the end of the specified
period for the Presidential Council that was appointed in accordance with the
Skhirat Agreement signed in Morocco in 2015, in addition to his multiple
military losses and his inability to confront the Libyan National Army (LNA)
led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. A new camp is being prepared to take over
the leadership under the auspices of Ankara, and this will not be through new
men, but rather, it will only switch roles between them.
Sarraj is afraid of being completely overthrown or even
having his powers reduced. Accordingly, the conflicts within the GNA are happening
publicly between Turkey’s burned card, Sarraj, and the militia leader closest
to Erdogan's government, Bashagha.
Militia struggle
On August 2, Sky News revealed, through its own military
sources, new cracks led by Bashagha against the camp of Osama al-Juwaili, the
military commander of the Western Region and the main leader of the Tripoli
militias that Sarraj uses in his war to loot Libya’s oil resources.
Meanwhile, Erem News reported that the recent conflict
resulted from orders issued by Bashagha to arrest mercenaries run by Juwaili
southwest of Tripoli against the backdrop of these mercenaries refusing to
comply with Bashagha’s orders, as they are only subject to Juwaili’s
directives.
Under the weight of the militia conflict, the western front
of Libya is tearing apart. Bashagha is tightening his grip on the Misrata
militias, which have played a major role in the Turkish conflict in Libya, and
he is working hard to enable his militias to use weapons sent from Ankara.
The sharp differences among the militias and their backers
appeared after Misrata militia leader Mohammed Arfidah al-Misrati was killed in
March. These are the militias under Bashagha’s direct control. At that time,
the finger of blame was directed at the Nawasi militia in Tripoli, which in
turn explains the attack launched by Bashagha in February against the Nawasi
militia, accusing it of financial corruption. These disputes did not happen for
the sake of Libya, but for the interest of imposing control and influence,
dreaming of power, and bullying abroad.
Struggle for influence
It is clear that the conflict led by Bashagha is not limited
to the dispute with the camps supporting Sarraj, but rather reaching direct
confrontation with the prime minister. On July 8, Bashagha sent a memorandum to
the GNA transportation minister to prevent any private planes from taking off
or landing without direct written permission from him, which represented a
fierce battle with Sarraj, who considered this an encroachment on the powers
that he granted himself and an attempt by Bashagha to tighten his control over
the government.
Then, Sarraj issued a memorandum on July 24, informing the transportation
minister and the head of the aviation sector that granting permission to travel
or land is his sole prerogative, and that Bashagha may only review the lists of
travelers and not grant them permission.
Mobilizing via claims of integrity
The conflicts between Bashagha and Sarraj have also spilled
over to social networking sites such as Twitter, which are witnessing great
activity by groups claiming to support Bashagha taking over the country,
especially a page called “The Popular Libyan Group to Support the Minister of
Interior”. The page claims that Bashagha seeks to purify Tripoli from
corruption, but it seems that this was adopted to attract false sympathy for
the new man supported by Turkey and the Brotherhood.
Commenting on this, Mahmoud al-Misrati, editor of the Akhbar
al-Hadath newspaper, wrote on Twitter that the rifts currently taking place
between Sarraj and Bashagha are due to the fact that the former used his groups
to plunder the country's wealth unilaterally, while the Brotherhood and Misrata
militias did not obtain what they wanted in terms of wealth. It is therefore
only a conflict of interests in which the economic suffering of citizens is
used as a tool for political and social fraud.