The United States Ambassador to Tripoli and Special Representative to Libya Richard Norland stated late Sunday that the prime minister of the Libyan National Unity Government (GNU), Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah, and Fathi Bashagha, who was appointed prime minister by the House of Representatives in Tobruk, are determined to avoid violence and to find ways to establish calm in the country.
In the post shared on the Twitter account of the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, it was stated that Norland had a telephone conversation with both rival leaders.
According to the statement, Norland said: "In my phone conversations with Dbeibah and Bashagha this evening, I was encouraged to hear that they were determined to ensure calm and avoid violence after the recent tragic deaths."
It was noted that Norland conveyed Bashagha's deep concerns that his right to political expression was threatened by armed groups and that Dbeibah's concerns about the steps he expressed as a disruption of public order were conveyed to the reciprocal parties.
Stating that the issue of legitimacy can only be resolved through elections, Norland emphasized that the steps to be taken in the form of rapid preparation for the elections as soon as possible were discussed.
At least 16 people were killed and 52 wounded in fighting between armed groups in Tripoli, the Health Ministry said Saturday, following the latest politically driven violence to hit the Libyan capital.
The fighting began on Thursday night and extended into Friday afternoon. On Saturday, violence erupted in Libya's third city Misrata, prompting the U.S. Embassy to warn of the risk of a wider flare-up.
Misrata is the hometown of both of the rival prime ministers who are vying for control of what remains of a central government.
The clashes pitted a militia loyal to the unity government of Dbeibah against another loyal to his rival Bashagha, named in February by a parliament based in the country's east, Libyan media reported.
Norland called on all political actors and their supporters among armed groups to stand down in order to avoid escalation.
"Today's clashes in Misrata demonstrate the dangerous prospect that the recent violence will escalate," he warned in a tweet.
"Armed efforts either to test or to defend the political status quo risk bringing Libya back to an era its citizens thought had been left behind."
The Tripoli clashes were between two armed groups with major clout in the west of the war-torn country: the al-Radaa force and the Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade.
Several sources said one group's detention of a fighter belonging to the other had sparked the fighting, which extended to several districts of the capital.
On Friday, another group called the 444 Brigade intervened to mediate a truce, deploying its own forces in a buffer zone before they too came under heavy fire, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer reported.
Libya has been gripped by insecurity since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, leaving a power vacuum armed groups have been wrangling for years to fill.
Tensions have been rising for months in Libya as the rival prime ministers face off, raising fears of renewed conflict two years after a landmark truce ended a ruinous attempt by eastern military chief Khalifa Haftar to seize Tripoli by force.
The dead were the first civilian casualties of fighting in Tripoli since the 2020 truce.
Both groups involved in the Tripoli fighting are nominally loyal to Dbeibah's GNU, appointed last year as part of a United Nations-backed peace process.
Dbeibah has refused to cede power to Bashagha, named prime minister after he made a pact with Haftar.
Turkey and Libya have seen closer ties in recent years, especially after the signing of security and maritime boundary pacts in November 2019, along with Turkey's aid to help the legitimate Libyan government push back putschist Haftar's forces. Libya has been torn by civil war since the ouster of late ruler Gadhafi in 2011. Turkey has supported the country's United Nations-recognized government against Haftar.
Libya's polls were scheduled to take place on Dec. 24 but were postponed amid disagreements between political rivals. No new date for the vote has been agreed upon. On Feb. 10, the Libyan House of Representatives named former Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha to form a new government.
Incumbent Prime Minister Dbeibah, however, rejected parliament's move, saying that he will hand over power only to an elected government. The U.N. said it still recognizes Dbeibah as Libya's interim prime minister.