Region

GAZA CITY — Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas slammed as "immoral" Monday an EU appeal to keep it on the bloc's terror blacklist, a month after a European court ordered its removal.

"The European Union's insistence on keeping Hamas on the list of terrorist organisations is an immoral step, and reflects the EU's total bias in favour of the Israeli occupation," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP.

"It provides it [Israel] with the cover for its crimes against the Palestinian people," he added.

Foreign ministers from the 28 EU member states decided at a Monday meeting to appeal the decision taken by the general court of the European Union on December 17, the bloc's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.

Israel, which slammed the December ruling, said it was not surprised about the EU's latest move.

"It's not a surprise, we're happy. We expected them to do this in the first place," a foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

"We do expect that they will correct this procedural error that was identified," he added.

The ruling by the EU's second highest court had said that the blacklisting of Hamas in 2001 was based not on sound legal judgements but on conclusions derived from the media and the Internet.

Hamas, which has dominated the Gaza Strip since 2007, had appealed against its inclusion on the blacklist on several grounds.

Israel's closest ally the United States has urged the EU to keep up its sanctions on Hamas, saying the US position had "not changed" and Hamas is still a "designated foreign terrorist organisation".

AMSTERDAM — Syria has started the long-delayed destruction of a dozen underground bunkers and hangars that were used for the production and storage of chemical weapons, diplomatic sources told Reuters on Monday.

Damascus last year handed over 1,300 metric tonnes of toxic agents after joining the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), but it is months behind schedule in destroying the facilities used to make and store its deadly stockpile.

Work at a first tunnel began on December 24, but was delayed by winter storms. The site will be sealed off with cement walls by the end of January, said one source in The Hague, where the global chemical weapons watchdog is based.

"The work finally began, which is good news," said another source. "There were some technical issues and the bad weather has slowed up the process."

Syria joined the OPCW after a sarin gas attack killed more than 1,000 people in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta on August 21, 2013, prompting threats of military intervention by the United States, which blamed President Bashar Assad's government. Assad's government and rebels blamed each other.

US President Barack Obama called off military action against Damascus after Syria agreed to destroy its chemical stockpiles. A year later the United States began a bombing campaign against Islamic State militants in Syria with the tacit approval of Assad, which still continues.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in the Syrian civil war since March 2011.

The head of the OPCW is expected to provide an update on the destruction of Syria's production and storage sites, part of its obligations under OPCW membership, to foreign governments at closed door meetings in The Hague on Wednesday.

The technical details of how the seven hangars are to be demolished with explosives are still being drawn up with experts at the OPCW, the sources said. The sources declined to be identified while sharing information about the programme before it is officially made public.

Repeated delays in destroying the facilities led to protests from Washington last month, when the US representative to the OPCW, Bob Mikulak, called on Syria to speed up the process under tighter outside monitoring.

An OPCW fact finding mission has been investigating the use of chlorine bombs, which have killed and injured dozens of people in Syrian villages in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and UN Security Council resolutions on Syria.

Syria denies allegations by Western governments that it withheld part of its chemical weapons stockpile.

DUBAI — Prosecutors on Monday charged Bahrain's Shiite opposition chief with attempting to overthrow the regime and sent him to trial despite international calls for his release.

Sheikh Ali Salman will stand trial from January 28 on charges of "promoting the overthrow and change of the political regime by force”, Prosecutor General Nayef Mahmud said in a statement.

Salman, head of the influential Al Wefaq bloc, has been in custody since December 28 and his detention has sparked near daily protests across the Shiite-majority but Sunni-ruled kingdom.

Salman was also charged with inciting disobedience and inciting hatred against a part of the population in public statements.

The prosecutor said Salman had confessed under questioning to making the statements in speeches in which he allegedly referred to meeting with groups abroad who offered to back an armed uprising.

Shiite-dominated Iran has been accused of interfering in Bahrain since its Sunni government crushed protests led by Al Wefaq in 2011 seeking a constitutional monarchy.

Salman was given "all legal guarantees" such as assistance from a team of lawyers and family visits during his questioning, Mahmud said.

In an e-mailed statement, Al Wefaq rejected the accusations against Salman which it described as "unrealistic" after he himself "categorically rejected" them during investigations.

Al Wefaq described Salman's trial as "political" and said the authorities had taken out of context his speeches and used them against him.

"There is no real case and no legal or moral excuse to detain or try" Salman, it said.

Salman's arrest sparked condemnation from Iran, the United States and international rights groups.

Human Rights Watch on Sunday urged Bahrain's Western allies to press the kingdom to release detained activists including Salman.

The New York-based organisation had said the authorities had failed to present any evidence against Salman that would justify his detention.

And Amnesty International said, meanwhile, that if convicted, it would consider Salman "a prisoner of conscience".

Washington has expressed concern over Salman's detention, warning it could inflame persistent violence that has gripped the kingdom, home to the US Fifth Fleet, since 2011.

Al Wefaq has claimed that a man had died from what it said may have been teargas inhalation following clashes Saturday between protesters and police in Salman's village of Bilad Al Qadim.

But the cause of the death of the man identified as Abdulazziz Salman Alsaeed remains unclear, with the authorities remaining silent on it so far.

At least 89 people have been killed in clashes with security forces since 2011. Hundreds have also been arrested and put on trial, rights groups say.

Last week, former MP Jamil Kazim, an Al Wefaq member, was sentenced to six months in jail for a tweet over election bribes, referring to November polls which were boycotted by his movement.

Meanwhile, prominent Shiite activist Nabeel Rajab will stand trial on Tuesday over tweets deemed insulting to public institutions, in an another case that has been criticised by rights groups.

BENGHAZI, Libya — Libya's internationally recognised government has recalled retired general Khalifa Haftar to army duty, officials said on Monday, cementing its alliance with him in a struggle against a rival administration claiming national authority.

The decision shows the increasing influence of military figures in the official government and parliament, which has been forced to operate from the east of the country since an armed group called Libya Dawn seized the capital Tripoli in summer.

Frustrated with the loss of Tripoli and lack of an efficient army or police, the elected parliament and its allied Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thinni have gradually built up a military alliance with Haftar.

Haftar, a former general under Qadhafi, is one of dozens of commanders of irregular forces which have refused to disarm after the ousting of Muammar Qadhafi in 2011.

In May he launched his own war against Islamist fighters in the eastern city Benghazi.

But his warplanes have also attacked commercial airports and a steel plant in western Libya. They hit a Greek-operated fuel tanker in Derna this month, killing two seamen, after Haftar's forces claimed it was carrying Islamist fighters.

A copy of an official decree obtained by Reuters recalled Haftar and 108 other former Qadhafi-era army officers for active army duty.

Haftar's air force chief Saqer Joroushi and lawmaker Idris Abdullah confirmed the contents of the decree. It was issued weeks ago but had not previously been made public.

Libya Dawn has denounced Haftar as a Qadhafi loyalist trying to stage a counter-revolution with former regime officials. Haftar helped Qadhafi seize power in 1969 but fell out with him in the 1980s after a disastrous defeat during a war in Chad.

Haftar has said he only wants to rid Libya of Islamist groups such as Ansar Al Sharia, blamed by Washington for a 2012 assault on the US consulate which killed its ambassador.

In a video message in February he announced what some feared was a coup, though that did not materialise. Later he demanded a special council to run Libya. Haftar has also drawn support from an armed group in the western town of Zintan which was blamed for an attack on parliament in Tripoli in May.

Senior officers linked to Haftar have also been given top posts in the recall.

Libya Dawn says Haftar is supported by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, which are worried about the spread of Islamists. He denies this but some analysts wonder how the tiny air force is able to stage almost daily attacks.

SANAA — Shiite militia fought deadly battles with the army in Yemen's capital on Monday before a ceasefire took hold, in the biggest challenge yet to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's rule.

At least nine people were killed as the militia, known as Houthis, seized an army base near the presidential palace in Sanaa and took control of state media as well as fired on a convoy carrying the prime minister.

The ceasefire came into effect after several hours, with a security official saying it had been agreed in a meeting of the defence and interior ministers with a Houthi representative.

This was confirmed by the interior ministry, and residents in areas around the presidential palace said the fighting had subsided.

A joint committee of the government and Houthis was later formed to ensure the ceasefire is adhered to.

At least nine people were killed in Monday's violence, including fighters from both sides, and 67 people were wounded, among them civilians, said Deputy Health Minister Nasser Baoum.

The clashes raised international concerns, with the Arab League, Britain and the United States calling for their immediate end.

The Houthis seized control of Sanaa in September and strategically important Yemen — which borders Saudi Arabia and is on key Gulf shipping routes — has since been wracked by unrest.

The violence has raised fears that Hadi's government, which is a key ally in Washington's fight against Al Qaeda, will collapse and that Yemen will become a failed state similar to Somalia.

The Houthis appeared to be tightening their hold on the capital on Monday, saying they had seized an army base on a hill overlooking the presidential palace.

Information Minister Nadia Sakkaf said they had also taken total control of state television and the official news agency.

State TV, news agency seized

"Yemeni satellite channel is not under state control, nor is state news agency Saba. The Houthis have completely controlled them and are refusing to publish any government statements," she tweeted.

Sakkaf said Houthis had also fired on Prime Minister Khalid Bahah's convoy as he left the presidential residence but that he was unharmed.

Witnesses said the fighting erupted early Monday after the militia deployed reinforcements near the presidential palace.

The military presidential guard sent troops onto the streets surrounding the palace and outside Hadi’s residence.

A security official said the army intervened when the Houthis began to set up a new checkpoint near the presidential palace.

But a prominent Houthi chief, Ali Al Imad, accused the presidential guard of provoking the clashes.

“Hadi’s guard is trying to blow up the situation on the security front to create confusion on the political front,” he said on Facebook.

Tensions have been running high in Sanaa since the Houthis abducted Hadi’s chief of staff, Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, in an apparent bid to extract changes to a draft constitution that he is overseeing.

Mubarak is in charge of a “national dialogue” set up after veteran strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced from power in February 2012 following a year of bloody Arab Spring-inspired protests.

The Houthis said they had seized him to prevent the violation of a UN-brokered agreement that provided for the formation of a new government and the appointment of Houthis as presidential advisers.

It stipulated that in return the Houthis would withdraw from key state institutions.

‘Spiralling out of control’ 

Mubarak’s kidnapping came just before a meeting of the national dialogue secretariat to present a draft constitution dividing Yemen into a six-region federation, which the Houthis oppose.

The rebels, who hail from Yemen’s remote north and fought a decade-long war against the government, rejected the decentralisation plan last year, claiming it divides the country into rich and poor regions.

“The Houthis’ decision to kidnap Mubarak was a serious escalation that now appears to be spiralling out of control,” said April Longley Alley, an analyst with the International Crisis Group.

Since their takeover of the capital, the Houthis, also known as Ansarullah, have pressed their advance into areas south of Sanaa, where they have met deadly resistance from Sunnis including Al Qaeda loyalists.

Yemen’s branch of the jihadist network, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is considered its most dangerous and claimed responsibility for this month’s attack in Paris on French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo that left 12 dead.

Hadi’s government has been a key ally of the United States, allowing Washington to carry out regular drone attacks on Al Qaeda militants in its territory.

Beirut — An Israeli strike on Syria killed an Iranian general, Tehran confirmed Monday, as thousands of supporters of Lebanon's Hizbollah gathered to bury one of six fighters killed in the same raid.

The attack on Sunday near Quneitra on the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan Heights enraged Hizbollah's supporters, but analysts said the group would avoid a major escalation with Israel.

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards confirmed the death of one of their generals in a statement on their website.

"General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi and a number of fighters and Islamic Resistance [Hizbollah] forces were attacked by the Zionist regime's helicopters," it said.

"This brave general and some members of Hizbollah were martyred."

A source close to Hizbollah said six Iranians had been killed in the attack. Hizbollah told AFP that it was not the source of that toll.

Among Hizbollah's dead was Jihad Moughniyah, the son of an assassinated commander from the group, and Mohammed Issa, a commander responsible for Hizbollah's operations in Syria and Iraq.

Once solely focused on fighting Israel, Hizbollah is now deeply involved in the war in neighbouring Syria, where it backs President Bashar Assad.

With its forces spread thin, and little appetite in fragile Lebanon for a new conflict with Israel, analysts said Hizbollah would seek to respond to the raid without provoking a full-on war.

‘Resistance will decide response’

On Monday afternoon, thousands of mourners gathered in Hizbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold for Moughniyah’s funeral.

“God willing, the resistance will retaliate but the leadership of the resistance will be the one to decide the nature and timing,” said Hassana Sadaqa, as she prepared to pay her respects.

Mourners chanted “Our party is Hizbollah, our leader is Nasrallah” as the coffin was carried through the streets and shots were fired into the air.

Moughniyah was buried in the same cemetery as his father Imad, who was killed in a 2008 car bombing that Hizbollah blamed on Israel.

As the crowds marched through the streets, residents threw confetti down from their balconies, celebrating what they see as the fighters’ “martyrdom”.

Hizbollah’s Al Manar television said the six were killed as they carried out reconnaissance.

But an Israeli security source said an Israeli helicopter carried our a strike on “terrorists” who were preparing an attack on the Jewish state.

The strike came days after Hizbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah threatened to retaliate against Israel for its repeated strikes on targets in Syria and boasted the movement was stronger than ever.

He touted its sophisticated arsenal, including Fateh-110 missiles, which have a range of 200 kilometres or more and are capable of hitting much of Israel.

‘Israel called Hizbollah’s bluff’ 

Analysts said the precision Israeli strike, days after Nasrallah’s bellicose remarks, stood to embarrass Hizbollah.

“What happened is that the Israelis called Hizbollah’s bluff last night,” said Hilal Khashan, a professor of political science at the American University in Beirut.

But he said Hizbollah’s response was likely to be limited “because if it retaliates, it will be another war. Hizbollah is in Syria and it is not ready for another war against Israel”.

Walid Charara, an analyst close to Hizbollah, said he had “no doubt” that the group would respond, either from Lebanese or Syrian territory.

Khashan said Hizbollah could resort to small-scale attacks, like a roadside bomb on the ceasefire line with Israel it claimed last year, but would avoid a more serious response.

Speaking to reporters at the funeral, Mahmud Qmati, a member of Hizbollah’s political bureau, said all-out war was unlikely, but that “the war of [limited] strikes, assassinations and intermittent confrontation continues”.

But another Hizbollah official, MP Bilal Farhat, refused to say what might happen next. “Let’s wait and see,” he said.

Lebanese media weighed the prospect of conflict, with the Al Safir newspaper saying Hizbollah needed something “more than a reply and less than a war”.

In Israel, analysts made the same calculation.

“Hizbollah doesn’t want a full-fledged war,” said Yoram Schweitzer, a former Israeli military counterterrorism chief.

“It has a number of possibilities to respond in different arenas. We assume that it currently does not want full contact,” he told AFP.

Israel occupied parts of Lebanon for 22 years until 2000 and the two countries are still technically at war.

In 2006, Israel fought a bloody war against Hizbollah that killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and some 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held talks with top Israeli officials in Jerusalem on Monday in a bid to deepen economic cooperation while also bringing a tough message on peace.

Abe said Tokyo would continue to have an "active engagement" in efforts to broker peace in the region as he held separate talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin.

His visit to Israel, the first by a Japanese premier since 2006, is primarily aimed at bolstering the bilateral relationship, particularly in the economic sphere.

But Abe, who travels Tuesday to the West Bank town of Ramallah, said he was also to give some tough advice to both Israel and the Palestinians.

"As a genuine friend, I might offer advice that may not be easy to swallow to both of the parties," he told reporters on meeting Netanyahu.

He did not elaborate further but the embassy said he would be urging both sides to find ways to return to the negotiating table after the collapse nine months ago of the latest round of peace talks.

Speaking to AFP, a Japanese government official said Abe would communicate the same message to both sides.

"The prime minister... believes that hatred does not help anything, and that both sides should refrain from taking unilateral actions that would exacerbate the situation... and [undermine] the two-state solution," he said on condition of anonymity.

For Israel, this referred to "issues like the settlements" as well as to its freezing of Palestinian tax monies.

Earlier this month, Israel blocked the transfer of $127 million to Ramallah as a punitive measure after the Palestinians applied to join the International Criminal Court where they can potentially sue Israel for alleged war crimes.

The move drew sharp international criticism, including from the United States and the European Union.

Both issues are likely to come up when Abe meets Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah on Tuesday.

Not helpful 

“In terms of the Palestinians... becoming a member [of the ICC] and the indictment of Israelis does not really help to pursue this [two-state] solution,” the Japanese official told AFP.

“He would say that both sides should refrain from taking these actions.”

At the start of the meeting with Abe, Netanyahu said Israel would continue to defend itself against any threats and would not be deterred by the ICC, which has begun a preliminary examination of a Palestinian complaint relating to Israeli actions last year.

“Israel is adamant that it will have the right to defend itself against all those who wish to propagate terror and other attacks against its citizens, against its territory,” he said.

“We will not have our hands tied by anyone, including the ICC. We will do what is necessary to defend ourselves wherever we need to do so.”

Earlier, Abe visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem as the world marks 70 years since the end of the Nazi genocide.

“This year as we mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and the liberation of Auschwitz, I make a pledge that we should never ever let such tragedies be repeated,” he said.

“Today, I have learned how merciless humans can be by singling out a group of people and making that group the object of discrimination and hatred,” he said after laying a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance and restoked the “eternal flame” as is customary for international leaders and diplomats visiting the site.

He also paid tribute to late Japanese diplomat Chiune Sempo Sugihara, who is known one of the “righteous among the gentiles” who gave travel documents to some 3,500 Jews trying to escape the Nazis while posted to Lithuania, and in whose honour a tree is planted at Yad Vashem.

After meeting Abbas in the West Bank on Tuesday, Abe will return to Japan, wrapping up a six-day tour of the region which began with a visit to Egypt and Jordan.

Riyadh — Saudi border guards have been given orders to shoot infiltrators on sight after three troopers were killed on the Iraqi frontier earlier this month, a spokesman said on Monday.

The orders apply to guards patrolling the southern border with Yemen as well as the northern frontier with Iraq, Major General Mohammed Al Ghamdi told AFP.

Senior commander General Odah Al Balawi was among the three border guards killed in the January 5 clash with four Saudi infiltrators, two of whom blew themselves up.

"After that, we will not negotiate with anyone," Ghamdi said.

"We will shoot them directly without any warning, without any negotiation."

He said security officers on the Iraqi side had been told of the new orders.

No group has claimed responsibility for the border clash but Saudi Arabia is among Arab countries taking part in US-led air strikes against the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria, raising concerns about possible retaliation inside the kingdom.

Ghamdi said he did not know if the "terrorists" belonged to IS, but they came from the direction of Iraq and tried to enter through an official crossing in the Arar region.

Officers tried to stop the infiltrators after spotting them on infra-red cameras, shooting two of them dead.

Thousands of riyals were found on their bodies, suggesting they had hoped to reach a target elsewhere in the kingdom, Ghamdi added.

Security officers later arrested seven suspected associates of the four infiltrators.

For security reasons, Ghamdi declined to say how many officers are stationed on the frontier.

Last September, the kingdom inaugurated the first stage of a protective fence and surveillance system stretching for about 900 kilometres along the northern desert frontier.

"It's very high-tech," Ghamdi said.

The shoot on sight order also applies to the southern border with Yemen, where Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has established a major presence amid deepening instability.

ANKARA — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday chaired a Cabinet meeting for the first time as head of state, in a move aimed at cementing his role as Turkey's undisputed number one.

Erdogan, who took over the presidency in August elections after more than a decade as premier, hosted the Cabinet at his own hugely controversial presidential palace on the outskirts of Ankara.

The Turkish president has the right under the constitution to chair Cabinet meetings, which are usually overseen by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

However Erdogan's two predecessors in the presidential job — Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Abdullah Gul — performed largely ceremonial roles and never chaired a government meeting.

The last president to do so was Suleyman Demirel, who served as head of state from 1993-2000. Erdogan is just the sixth Turkish president in the history of the modern republic founded in 1923 to chair a Cabinet meeting.

Erdogan transformed Turkey in over a decade as prime minister from 2003 to 2014, winning plaudits for speeding up development and growth but also facing accusations of imposing a creeping Islamisation and authoritarianism on the country's secular democracy.

The closed-door-meeting, which was to include presentations by ministers on key issues, began just after midday and went on into the evening.

The first official images showed Erdogan sitting at the head of a vast oval table directly facing all the ministers.

A photo from the meeting depicting a seemingly annoyed Davutoglu — looking sidelined with just a jug of orange juice for company — was widely circulated on social media.

"The picture of Davutoglu brings to mind children whose toy was taken away by their father," wrote one Twitter user @Pasha_GS mockingly.

'Dress rehearsal' 

Analysts saw the meeting as a turning point in Turkish politics, symbolising the creation of a powerful presidency.

Commentator Murat Yetkin said previous examples of a president chairing a Cabinet meeting followed either an invitation by a prime minister, or major international crises like the gathering called by late president Turgut Ozal for the Gulf war in the 1990s.

"Today is different," he wrote in Hurriyet Daily News, saying Davutoglu had simply accepted that "it would be Erdogan who ruled the country".

The August elections were the first time a Turkish president, traditionally a ceremonial role, has been directly elected by the people and Erdogan insisted he now has a popular mandate to be an active and powerful leader.

In barely five months in office, Erdogan has transformed the role, making clear that the president is Turkey's number one on all the major issues, including foreign policy.

Monday's meeting comes at the start of a key year for Turkey which will in June vote in a legislative election where the AKP is seeking a big majority to write a new constitution that will enshrine Erdogan's powers as president.

"Erdogan's fait accompli at his new palace is a dress rehearsal of the de-facto presidential system he hopes to impose following the June 2015 elections," said Aykan Erdemir, lawmaker of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).

Controversial palace 

Critics say civil and media freedoms have eroded further in Turkey during Erdogan's half year as president, which has been marked by an all-out-offensive against supporters of his former ally-turned-archfoe, US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

He has also raised eyebrows with some increasingly outlandish statements, claiming that Muslims discovered America before Columbus and saying women are not equal to men.

Erdogan's promotion of a strong presidency is symbolised by the vast presidential palace which opened last last year and he says is needed as a symbol of a powerful "new Turkey", but which opponents say is another sign of authoritarian excess.

Previously, Turkish presidents from the founder of the modern republic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk worked in the far more modest Cankaya palace in downtown Ankara.

The new palace has 1,150 rooms and was built at a cost of around 490 million euros ($615 million).

Benghazi, Libya — Libya's army announced a ceasefire Sunday, joining an Islamist-backed militia alliance in declaring a truce that the UN hailed as a "significant" step towards ending months of violence.

"We declare a ceasefire from midnight (2200 GMT) Sunday," the army said, stressing however that it would continue to pursue "terrorists", as UN-brokered peace talks resume in Geneva next week.

The army also said it would monitor the situation on the ground "to prevent any change in front lines or transportation of weapons and ammunition", which it would consider a violation of the truce.

Soldiers "have been given the right to defend themselves if they come under fire," the statement added.

The UN's Libya mission welcomed the ceasefire as a "significant contribution" to the country's peace process and called on all parties to work with UNSMIL to "ensure compliance" with the truce.

“UNSMIL urges the parties to ensure that the ceasefire applies to ground, sea and air operations as well as movement of armed personnel and vehicles,” it said.

The UN mission said it would coordinate with both sides “regarding tackling any breaches” and that the truce would allow the flow of humanitarian aid to people displaced by fighting.

Armed forces spokesman Colonel Ahmed Mesmari said the decision was taken “in support of the Geneva talks” and stressed that the army keeps its distance from politics.

“The army is engaged in pursuing its duty to protect the Libyan people, ensure security and stability in the country and fight terrorism and anarchy whatever the outcome of the negotiations,” Mesmari sai

On Friday, the Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) militia alliance said it had agreed to a ceasefire in the North African country on the condition rival factions respected the truce.

It also pledged to open up “safe passages to channel humanitarian aid”, especially in Libya’s battleground second city of Benghazi.

Late Saturday, the commander of a militia from third city Misrata allied with Fajr Libya, Ahmed Hadiya, said his fighters would respect the ceasefire.

Fajr Libya did not take part in the first round of peace talks in Geneva last week, during which Libya’s opposing factions agreed on a roadmap to form a unity government and to further discussions.

Libya has been sliding deeper into conflict since the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Qadhafi, with rival governments and powerful militias battling for control of its main cities and oil wealth.

The internationally recognised government and elected parliament decamped last summer to the country’s far east after Fajr Libya seized Tripoli and set up its own administration.

The militia alliance also holds Misrata and launched a bloody offensive in December to seize key oil terminals but was repelled by the army.

Libya’s rival government, the General National Congress (GNC), which also did not attend the Geneva talks, said on Sunday that it will not send delegates to next week’s discussions.

“The talks must take place on Libyan soil,” a statement said.

The GNC had served as Libya’s highest political authority after gaining power in the country’s first free election. It was replaced in June polls but has refused to disband.