Khalifa Haftar — exclusive interview “Roadmap Beyond Tripoli” (Al Marsad / Libyan Address), 19 June 2019 (English translation of Arabic)

First and foremost, we count on the efforts of our own soldiers and officers, and on the support of the Libyan people […]. Such change begins with the war on terror, the dismantling of militias, and the ending of this phase of the hijacked authority that lacks proper authorization by the people.

No, the solution must be through the political track, and with the participation of all Libyans. The military operation takes aim at inexecrable realities that could not be addressed by any other means. Such realities include: the presence and spreading of terrorist leaders […] the presence and spreading of militias, and their control over the funds that belong to the Libyan people at the Central Bank of Libya […] and also the presence of groups of politicized Islam that sabotage political life […]. This is the part that we aim at with our military operation; anything else, the Libyan people will find solutions for, using dialogue and discussion, through peaceful, political, and democratic means.

[…] Military operations will NOT stop before we accomplish all our objectives. […]

[…] we will enter a transitional period that is, this time, both clear and disciplined. […] For example, the dismantling of all militias, disarming them […]. The dismantling of all bodies generated by the Skhirat Accord, which has not only expired and failed in finding any exit from the crisis, but actually created several other crises.

I repeat, we are not against political solutions, nor against the democratic process, nor against elections. On the contrary, we see elections as the best path forward, as in all countries of the world. The ABC of democracy is arbitration exclusively through the ballot box, not arbitration through an alleged 'consensus' that has been forcibly imposed upon Libyans in the lobbies of hotels. We believe all these values and institutions of a civil and modern state cannot live in the shadow of terrorist control and groups like Qaida, LIFG, the Muslim Brotherhood, militias and gangs of organized crime […].