By Saber Ayyub.
Tripoli, 5 April 2016:
Nuri Abu Sahmain, the president of the General National Congress (GNC), has condemned this morning’s meeting . . .[restrict]of members who declared the GNC dissolved and State Council formally instituted with themselves as its members.
In statement issued this evening, he said that meeting held at the Mahary Radisson Blu Hotel in Tripoli and its decision to amend the 2011 Constitutional Declaration by incorporating the Libyan Poilitical Agreement was illegal.
The statement came as the “National Salvation Government” he appointed, led by Khalifa Ghwell, announced that it has resigned. In a statement posted on the Facebook page of its justice ministry, it said that its had ceased to operate and would no longer bear “responsibility for any future developments out of the current situation”. It was putting “the interests of the nation above everything else,” it said. In particular, it wanted to avoid bloodshed and violence in the capital.
The statement, which came a week after the UN-backed Presidency Council arrived in Tripoli to take over power, also claimed that “the presidency” and “members of parliament” were also ceasing to operate – an apparent reference to the GNC.
In his statement, however, Abu Sahmain claimed that GNC had held a valid, quorate session today at its formal headquarters in Tripoli.
He said that his GNC would go to the Libyan Supreme Court seeking a ruling on the legitimacy of the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA), signed on 17 December 2015 in Skhirat. Brokered by the UN, it both the Presidency Council and State Council.
Under the agreement, the LPA has to be incorporated into the Constitutional Declaration by the House of Representatives alone, not the GNC. [/restrict]
