Erdoğan circumventing militia disbanding calls by forming national guard in Libya

Mustafa Kamel

The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) is reportedly trying to form a national guard, a new military force that will combine all the militia members affiliated to it in the areas it controls in Libya.

The idea of forming such a force enjoys strong backing from Turkey which works to impose its control on Libya.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has plans for turning the new force into an army that functions under the umbrella of the GNA.

He wants the force to be similar to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corpse or the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq.

Ideological plan

The formation of the new force goes hand in hand with an idea proposed by the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar in 2011.

Reports about its potential formation also come days after the US ordered the GNA to disband some of the militias operating within it.

It is yet a new attempt by the Tripoli-ruling government to get around the US injunction.

National Guard

The new force will be affiliated to GNA Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj. It will be based in Tripoli and have an independent budget.

It will be made of all the military units and militias now operating under the GNA. The mission of the new force will be to guard all presidential and sovereign headquarters in the areas controlled by the GNA. It will also guard all land and maritime entry points as well as the airspace of the areas controlled by the GNA.

The GNA says the new force will be endowed with the mission of safeguarding the civilian nature of rule in Libya.

This is, however, a loose term, throwing light on the possibility that the GNA can use the new force in implementing its own agenda.