{"id":15554,"date":"2018-09-18T18:28:24","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T18:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=15554"},"modified":"2018-09-18T18:28:24","modified_gmt":"2018-09-18T18:28:24","slug":"houthis-refuse-un-envoy-efforts-to-start-peace-talks-in-geneva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=15554","title":{"rendered":"Houthis refuse UN envoy efforts to start peace talks in Geneva"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1373936\/middle-east\" readability=\"48\">\n<p>\nTRIPOLI: New clashes flared between rival militias south of Libya\u2019s capital Tripoli on Tuesday, causing widespread power outages, the national electricity firm said.<br \/>The fighting underscored the fragility of a United Nations-backed cease-fire reached earlier this month after days of deadly violence between armed groups in the capital, beset by turmoil since the fall of dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.<br \/>Tuesday morning\u2019s clashes centered on the main road to Tripoli\u2019s long-closed international airport, according to witnesses including an AFP journalist.<br \/>Libya\u2019s National Electricity Company said its network had been damaged, causing a total blackout across the North African nation\u2019s south and west.<br \/>Fighting which broke out late last month killed at least 63 people and wounded 159 others \u2014 mostly civilians \u2014 before the cease-fire came into effect on September 4.<br \/>Last week, the capital\u2019s only working airport came under rocket fire just days after reopening following the truce.<br \/>Mitiga International Airport, located in a former military base that includes a prison, is currently controlled by the Special Deterrence Forces, a Salafist militia which serves as Tripoli\u2019s police force and has been involved in clashes around the capital.<br \/>Interior Minister Abdessalam Ashour said Monday that a \u201cregular force\u201d would be tasked with securing the airport.<br \/>UN envoy Ghassan Salame later reported 14 cease-fire violations around Tripoli, but sought to play them down, saying the deal had been \u201cgenerally respected.\u201d<br \/>Tripoli\u2019s main airport has been out of action since it was severely damaged by similar clashes in 2014.<br \/>Since Qaddafi\u2019s fall in 2011, oil-rich Libya has been rocked by violence between dozens of armed groups vying for control of its cities and vast oil resources.<br \/>A UN-brokered agreement signed in Morocco in December 2015 established the Government of National Accord (GNA) in a bid to ease the chaos.<br \/>But deep divisions remain between the GNA and rivals including military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who is based in eastern Libya and backs a competing authority.<br \/>The GNA last week announced a series of measures to secure the capital and curb the influence of militias over state institutions and banks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRIPOLI: New clashes flared between rival militias south of Libya\u2019s capital Tripoli on Tuesday, causing widespread power outages, the national electricity firm said.The fighting underscored the fragility of a United Nations-backed cease-fire reached earlier this month after days of deadly violence between armed groups in the capital, beset by turmoil since the fall of dictator&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":15555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}