The new Libyan prime minister has vowed to empower security institutions so they can bring order to the country, promising also to advance national reconciliation.
Ahmed Maiteg spoke in his first televised speech since being appointed in a vote opposed by parliament’s non-Islamist bloc.
Listing his government’s top priorities, Mr. Maiteg said on late Monday that security comes first.
“Imposing state hegemony, control and sovereignty on the country’s soil and building the security and military institutions,” stood at the top of the list, he said, followed by national reconciliation, decentralization and restructuring of public services and the economy.
Libya has been hit with sporadic violence since the downfall of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in an eight-month civil war in 2011. Successive governments have depended on militias to restore law and order.