By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 2 April 2017:
Because it says he is obstructing the political process, the EU has renewed sanctions on Nuri Abu Sahmain, the former General National Congress president, along with the House of Representatives’s Ageelah Saleh and the prime minister of the so-called National Salvation Government (NSG) Khalifa Ghwell.
The oddity is that Abu Sahmain, an Amazigh, has played no role in Libyan politics for almost a year and is believed to have left Tripoli for Zuwara. His most recent pronouncement was in April last year when he attacked the old parliament for dissolving itself and morphing into the State Council.
It is hard therefore to understand how the EU’s continued financial and travel sanctions might influence Sahmain’s behaviour. It was not possible to contact Sahmain for his reaction.
The European Council first imposed sanctions on Sahmain, Saleh and Ghwell last April because they were considered to be blocking the implementation of the Libyan Political Agreement of December 2015.
Saleh remains the president (speaker) of the HoR but Ghwell’s attempt to resuscitate the NSG in Tripoli has thus far met with limited success. Meanwhile, Sahmain is widely no longer considered to be a political player.
