The Commander of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces, Marshal Khalifa Haftar, held a review on Tuesday of the Benghazi development plan which was launched last week and aims to rebuild and rehabilitate the downtown areas of the city.

Haftar’s hosted the head of the Benghazi Municipality’s Executive Council, Saqr Bujawari and an engineering consulting team from the Greek firm LEEAD at his office for the presentation.

The General Command's Information Office said that the visiting delegation gave Haftar a "full explanation of the plan to expand and develop the old city of Benghazi," adding that Haftar confirmed to "the visiting delegation that he had instructed the municipality of Benghazi since 2019 to immediately start taking all steps that would rebuild the city".

The Information Office added that Haftar "stressed the need to implement the plan in accordance with high engineering and technical standards, and adherence to sustainable development methods in order for Benghazi to become an economic and cultural capital."

Haftar said, "Our interest in this vital strategic project comes within the framework of our commitment to our martyrs whose pure blood was spilled in order to liberate the city of Benghazi from the oppressors. Likewise, the people and residents of the old and authentic city of Benghazi deserve to see it as a distinguished economic, civilizational, and cultural center."

The project for the expansion and development of the city of Benghazi was launched in a ceremony that took place on Saturday. It was attended by a number of officials, members of parliament, security, military and social leaders, as well as consuls in the city.