By Libya Herald reporter.
Benghazi, 2 May 2017:
Although there has been no official statement so far on today’s talks in Abu Dhabi between Presidency Council head Fayez Serraj and Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, unconfirmed reports say that a number of points were agreed. These include reducing the Presidency Council to three rather than nine members, the fight against terrorism and the classifying of a number of organisations as terrorists, the removal of controversial supplementary Clause 8 of the Libyan Political Agreement, and fresh parliamentary and presidential elections within six months of an agreement being reached.
Other items agreed are said to be:
- The formation of a new presidency council to comprise a president plus the head of the House of Representatives and the general commander of the Libyan armed forces;
- No foreign interference in army and security affairs;
- The dissolution of militias and armed groups;
- Compliance with all Libyan judicial decisions; and
- Rejecting the settlement of migrants in Libya.
Hafter and Serraj are also said to have agreed to set up working group to prepare a formal agreement. It is also reported that they will have another meeting to continue their discussions next week in Cairo and that it will be attended by Egyptian President Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.
Sisi was to have attend the talks that the two were supposed to have in the Egyptian capital in February but which failed to take place when Hafter refused to meet Serraj.
There is no news as to whether the LNA will call a new ceasefire in the south.
The decision on fighting terrorism may prove thorny if, as reported, it has been agreed that the Benghazi Revolutionaries’ Shoura Council (BRSC) and the Benghazi Defence Brigades are to be classified as terrorists because of their ties to Al-Qaeda via Ansar Al-Sharia, itself part of the BRSC. This will almost certainly be rejected by a number of Misratan groups as well as those allied to the grand mufti, Sheikh Sadek Al-Ghariani.
