By Libya Herald staff.
Tunis, 27 July 2015:
Two senior members of the House of Representatives (HoR) are in Washington for talks with . . .[restrict]the US government and Congress about security and the political situation in Libya, as well as potential support from the US.
Ali Al-Saedi (Wadi Al-Shatti) who heads of the HoR’s Interior Committee, and Salhin Saad Abdulnabi (Tobruk), a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, arrived in the US capital on Friday. Over the weekend they had had talks with embassy staff on issues such as financial problems facing Libyans students as well wounded Libyans being treated in the US.
Although the trip is said to have been a last-minute affair, causing a degree of difficulty for the diplomats who have had to arrange appointments at a time when many top officials and lawmakers in the US capital have gone on vacation, the two HoR members are, on Tuesday, due to met the chief of staff of the office of Senator John McCain, who heads the Senate’s Armed Services Committee. On Wednesday, they will meet the chief of staff of the office of Congressman Ed Royce who heads the US House of Representative’s Committee on Foreign Affairs.
There will also be meetings with State Department officials on Wednesday and again on Thursday, when they leave the US.
On Wednesday they will also meet with members of the Libyan community.
In April, a larger group of HoR members were in Washington to meet with US officials. However, it was not seen as a successful trip, with some members indicating they believed the State Department was overly influenced by the Libyan American Public Affairs Council, led by Aly Abuzakouk. He was elected to the HoR for Benghazi but has since boycotted it and is seen as firmly pro-Libya Dawn.
That influence is now seen to be waning. [/restrict]
