OnIslam.net

TRIPOLI – A leading Libyan Islamist, whose fighters played a key role in ousting Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, has endorsed the country’s new government amid fears of growing tension between rival factions.

"I hope that it (the new government) will be granted all the support needed for it to carry out its tasks,” Abdel Hakim Belhadj told Reuters.

“I am aware of certain opinions accusing it of being imbalanced in terms of representing all regions, but we hope that it would be allowed to carry out its duties to render the country stable and secure."

Belhadj is a former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which waged an insurgency against Gaddafi in the 1990s.

He spent time with mujahedeen in Afghanistan, though he said he was not allied with Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda.

Belhadj was captured, detained by British and US intelligence services, and sent to Libya in 2004, where he was jailed. He was given an amnesty last year after renouncing violence.

Belhadj heads the Tripoli Military Council, a heavily-armed force of about 25,000 men.

It is one of dozens of competing groups which Western states backing Libya's new leaders want to see brought under one command.

Belhadj’s supporters were overlooked in the new government of caretaker premier Abdurrahim El-Keib.

Worries about possible confrontations escalated after the defense portfolio was given to the head of a rival faction.

But Belhadj played down the worries, saying he had not put his name forward for any cabinet post, and had been consulted about appointments for the most powerful jobs.

"As revolutionaries, we are concerned with supporting this government and all the ministers including the defense minister,” Belhadj said.

“We will coordinate and cooperate with the defense ministry ... Our relationship with the defense minister is good."

Tensions between the rival groups surfaced last week when Belhadj was briefly detained at Tripoli International Airport as he set off on a trip abroad. Airport officials said there was a problem with his passport.

Security at the airport is controlled by fighters from Zintan, the stronghold of another powerful faction southwest of Tripoli that is also the power base of the new defense minister, Osama al-Juwali.

Islamist Politician

Belhadj played down worries of deadly confrontations between rival factions.

He said that only that opposing views were "very normal in ... (the) democratic atmosphere that the Libyans are living in nowadays."

Belhadj said he will work with the defense and interior ministries on a mechanism for his forces to hand over their weapons and amalgamate into new government institutions.

"You can see that the military presence has receded and this is a positive sign," said Belhadj.

But he said it was too early to give a timetable for the handover, and that it was down to the government to create the right conditions for this to happen.

"It is not on our agenda right now. This is a two-sided solution,” Belhadj said.

“We call on the government to recruit the revolutionaries into the ministries and public institutions.

"We have to wait for the plans and programs of the relevant ministries and the corresponding plans and programs to be initiated by the revolutionaries," he said.

"When the two reach a meeting point (we need) to draft a comprehensive plan, then it would be done."

Libyans close to the new government speculate that Belhadj is planning to form an Islamist political party which will compete for power in the elections scheduled to take place around the middle of next year.

He did not give details about what he was planning.