By Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli/Tunis, 7 December 2015:
General National Congress (GNC) president Nuri Abu Sahmain says he plans to meet with the . . .[restrict]House of Representatives (HoR) president, Ageela Salah Gwaider. Speaking to Al Nabaa TV today, he said he hoped it would be a success encounter.
However, HoR members who back UN-brokered Libya Dialogue deal and the proposed Government of National Accord say that Salah Gwaider has not been authorised to talk to Abu Sahmain and that there can be no meeting until the GNC accept certain conditions.
Rumours of a meeting have been rife since an informal gathering of a number of eastern Libyan members from both the HoR and GNC in Tunis last week proposed the two presidents meet. Following this, a number of HoR members agreed, again informally, that an invitation should be sent to Abu Sahmain to meet with Salah Gwaider.
Further impetus was provided by Saturday’s agreement in Tunis between delegations from both bodies that a committee with five members from each side appoint a prime minister and two deputy prime minister within two weeks of its first meeting. It would also amend the 1963 constitution so it can used as a temporary measure. The Deputy GNC president Awad Abdul Saddeq, who lead the GNC delegation told the Libya Herald yesterday that Abu Sahmain fully approved the deal.
It, though, has also antagonised those HoR members supporting the Libya Dialogue agreement and that GNA.
In their statement released today, they said they rejected Saturday’s Tunis deal and were sticking to the UN one.
“We, HoR members, agree on the political agreement of the UN-brokered dialogue in Skhirat and the Fezzan Initiative made by some law-makers from the south. We reject any meetings intended to thwart or disrupt the path of dialogue brokered by UN”, a statement from them read.
They also called Ageela Salah to come clean about any planned meeting with Abu Sahmain. It was not authorised by the HoR and could only happen if the GNC accepted a number of points, the statement said. These were that there was terrorism in Libya which had to be fought, that the Libyan National Army was doing just that in Benghazi, that its legitimacy could not be questioned, and that all support for the Benghazi Revolutionaries’ Shoura Council had to stop.
No names were put to the statement although one HoR member said it was backed by some 90 of his colleagues. A fortnight ago, 92 members signed a statement supporting the GNA and Libya Dialogue deal.
Ageela Salah’s views on the deal and any meeting with Abu Sahmain are unknown. However, this newspaper was told by an HoR official that he had approved the HoR team going to Tunis to discuss a settlement with the GNC group.
Meanwhile, in a bid to keep the HoR and GNC on track with the Libya Dialogue deal, UN Special Envoy Martin Kobler flew hurredly back to Tunis to meet the HoR and GNC teams responsible for Saturday’s agreement and who were still in the Tunisian capital. In a tweet, he later said that there had been “candid talks” with them and that he had “urged them to join majority of Libyans” and approve the Libya Dialogue deal. [/restrict]
