The head of the national unity government, Abdul Hamid al-Dabaiba, met Monday in Sirte with members of the joint military committee known as the "5 + 5" committee, to review the progress of the meetings that the committee holds with the UN support mission in Libya, shortly after he officially assumed his duties.

Sources told Al-Jazeera that the committee discussed the implementation of previous agreements, especially those related to expelling mercenaries from Libya and opening the coastal road.

The spokesman for the Prime Minister, Mohamed Hammouda, said that the date for the reopening of the closed coastal road by the forces of retired Major General Khalifa Haftar since April 2019 is expected to be "very soon."

For his part, a member of the sub-committee responsible for the demining file in the committee, Mohamed Al-Torgoman, said that the meeting discusses the steps that have been taken regarding the arrangements and needs for the success of the committee's work.

Legal oath

Dabaiba's talks in Sirte came after his government took the legal oath before the House of Representatives in Tobruk - the seat of the interim parliament located about 1,300 kilometers east of the capital, Tripoli - and it formally assumed its duties.

The oath was to be sworn in the city of Benghazi, the cradle of the uprising that led to the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, before it was transferred to Tobruk for "logistical" considerations.

Dabaiba said, "I swear by God Almighty to perform my duties with all honesty and sincerity, to work to achieve the goals of the February 17th revolution, to respect the principles of the Constitutional Declaration, and to fully care for the interests of the people and preserve Libya's independence and territorial integrity."

The government of Dabaiba - which seeks to be "representative of all Libyans" - consists of two deputy prime ministers, 26 ministers and 6 state ministers.

Five ministries - including two sovereign ministries (Foreign Affairs and Justice) - were granted to women, a precedent in the country of 7 million.

A kernel of reconciliation

For his part, the head of the Libyan Presidency Council, Muhammad Al-Manfi, called on the government and the House of Representatives to prepare the atmosphere for the elections scheduled for next December, and called for strengthening what he called the nucleus of societal reconciliation.

For his part, Parliament Speaker Agila Saleh said that the birth of the new government means an end to marginalization and the need to show tolerance.

On February 6, the committee agreed to remove mines from Sirte and the roads leading to it, starting from the tenth of the same month, in preparation for the opening of the Misurata-Sirte road.

Since October 23, 2020, a ceasefire has prevailed in Libya under the auspices of the United Nations.

On February 5, the Forum for Political Dialogue, sponsored by the United Nations, elected a unified executive authority that includes a government and a presidential council to lead Libya to the elections.