The United Nations said it still recognizes Libya's interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah after the eastern-based parliament of the war-torn country on Thursday appointed a former interior minister as prime minister.

Dbeibah escaped unharmed from an assassination attempt early Thursday in the capital, Tripoli.

"We've seen the press reports on the assassination, but we've not gotten any confirmation," Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said at a news conference.

Dujarric said the U.N. chief's Special Advisor on Libya Stephanie Williams "is currently engaging with all key interlocutors to get a clearer picture of what has been agreed (on)."

The Libyan House of Representatives on Thursday appointed former interior minister Fathi Bashagha to become the country's new prime minister, a serious challenge to Dbeibah's administration.

The Libyan parliamentary session came while Dbeibah vowed to continue in his post, adhering to the outcome of negotiations in 2020 under the intra-Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, which set the term of the transitional government at 18 months, extending it to June.

Dbeibeh vowed Wednesday that his government will keep working to ensure that Libya does not go through a "new transitional phase" and will not allow the "dominant political class of the past to continue in the coming years."

Hired hit men

A day after surviving an alleged assassination attempt, Dbeibah told Libya Al Ahrar TV a bill would be presented to the House of Representatives then transferred to the presidential council for ratifying.

Dbeibah said two mercenaries were hired to kill him but he did not elaborate on who was behind the alleged attack.

"The Parliament's selection of a new government is another attempt to enter Tripoli by force," Dbeibah said in the interview.