BENGHAZI: Former Libyan general Khalifa Haftar was appointed as army commander for the country’s internationally recognized government on Monday in a decision that may complicate UN talks to end fighting in Libya.

Four years after Muammar Qaddafi’s demise, Libya is mired in a conflict pitting the recognized government against a rival administration set up by an armed faction known as Libya Dawn that took over the capital Tripoli last summer.

The appointment of Haftar, a former Qaddafi ally who later joined the 2011 revolution against the Libyan leader, is likely to stoke tensions with the Tripoli government, which sees his rise as a sign that the old guard is gaining strength.

“The House of Representatives has appointed Gen. Khalifa Belqasem Haftar as top military commander,” said Tarek Saqer Juroushi, deputy head of the defense committee at Libya’s elected Parliament. He said Haftar had been promoted to lieutenant general, adding that he would be sworn in on Tuesday or Wednesday.

A former general who helped Qaddafi come to power only to fall out with him in the 1980s, Haftar has become one of the most divisive figures in post-revolution Libya where he re-emerged on the political stage last year.

Haftar has merged his irregular forces with army troops in the east to fight disparate radical groups. But he has also targeted forces loyal to the Libya Dawn armed faction.

The UN is trying to organize peace talks between the rival administrations to defuse the violent power struggle that is threatening to tear apart the North African country.

Meanwhile, a new UN report says Libya’s ability to prevent the flow of weapons into and out of the chaotic country is “almost nonexistent,” and it calls for the tightening of an arms embargo that the government says must be loosened so it can defend itself.

The report by a panel of experts also recommends the creation of a maritime monitoring force to help Libya’s government prevent both the flow of weapons and the illegal export of the country’s oil. The country has Africa’s largest proven reserves of crude.