The Libyan presidency denies the attack by armed groups on a hotel where they meet

A senior official at Libya’s new Presidential Council denied on Saturday that groups who entered a hotel where the body meets had been armed or used force, playing down an event that had seemed to illustrate the risks facing the unity government.

Earlier, the Council’s spokeswoman had said armed groups had stormed the Corinthia Hotel on Friday, though she also said nobody from the body had been within the building at the time.

“There was no kidnapping, gunfire, or an attack on me or the hotel,” the top of the Presidential Council’s office, Mohamed al-Mabrouk said during a social media video, adding that he had been within the hotel at the time of the incident.

Mabrouk said the top of the Presidential Council, which functions as Libya’s head of state for now, would meet with the groups involved.

The Presidential Council was chosen through a United Nations-facilitated process that also selected a replacement Government of National Unity (GNU) that took office in March, replacing rival administrations in east and west.

Armed groups based in western Libya have voiced anger at the GNU secretary of state , Najla al-Manqoush.

Challenges

Head of the GNU Abdelhamid Dbeibeh has worked to win support from Libya’s many rival factions, forming an outsized cabinet that has an array of ideological and regional figures.

However, both the Presidential Council and GNU have faced internal criticism and challenges to their authority.

In eastern Libya, commander Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA) still control nearly a year after their 14-month offensive to seize the capital collapsed.

In Tripoli, the armed groups that pushed Haftar back from the capital with Turkish support still control the streets.

Foreign mercenaries remain entrenched on each side of the heavily fortified battlefront , despite international involves the warring sides to tug them from the country.

Last week, Manqoush repeated the decision for all foreign fighters to go away while standing next to visiting Turkish secretary of state Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Turkey says its military presence in Libya is different thereto of other foreign forces because it had been invited by the previous Government of National Accord (GNA) and it’ll not withdraw until others do.

Before Friday’s incident, an operations room for the Tripoli armed groups said on social media that it had met to debate “irresponsible statements” by Manqoush and later called on the GNU to formally reject Haftar.