By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli/Tunis, 8 December 2014:
In a sign that neither side in Libya’s highly polarised political environment is prepared to . . .[restrict]shift its position and is losing interest in dialogue, UN Special Envoy Bernardino Leon has announced that the dialogue talks which were supposed to start tomorrow, Tuesday, have been postponed until early next week.
Leon who arrived in Tripoli during the day said that the delay is to give both sides more time to consider the situation.
He met with Nuri Abu Sahmain head of the rump General National Congress which insists it is still be Libya’s legitimate parliament, for what the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said were part of the “intense consultations” that it has been having with Libyan key players in recent weeks.
Leon later said that all Libya’s various groups needed to take part in the dialogue. The only group he excepted was Ansar Al-Sharia. It means, as leaked earlier, that selected members of Congress are being invited to join the talks alongside member of the HoR. However, whether the later will accept this remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, the political scene appears to be fracturing further. Misrata member of the HoR Fathi Bashagha, who has been boycotting its proceedings but took part in the Ghadames I talks and is seen as a leading figure trying to bridge the divide in the country, was reported on Misrata TV saying the Omar Al-Hassi administration was not legitimate because it was not legally appointed and that Libya Dawn’s reason to exist finished when it ejected the Zintanis from Tripoli International Airport.
It is feared that his intervention may spur opponents to dialogue among Libya Dawn to take action against those in favour.
Complicating the picture further are reports that that Constitutional Drafting Assembly is considering suggesting that both the HoR and Congress be replaced with an interim legislature made up of all the country’s new elected mayors. So far there are some 75.
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