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By Jamie Prentis.
Tunis, 28 July 2017:
The State Council (SC) has urged the House of Representatives (HoR) to join it in beginning the Dialogue process to amend the Libyan Political Agreement. Libya was in a stalemate and limited compromises based on the LPA had to be made as soon as possible, it said.
Its statement is in response to Tuesday’s meeting in Paris between Presidency Council Faiez Serraj and Libya National Army leader Khalifa Hafter, and the ten-point agreement they reached. Article 5 says that there has to be an inclusive political dialogue “in which the House of Representatives and the State Council will have their place”.
Earlier, following the Paris talks, the SC had applauded the impetus provided by the French government, describing its initiative as a “positive”.
In its subsequent statement, it called on the HoR to help end the current political division so that strong state institutions and internally displaced people could return.
Ultimately, the LPA was the way forward, the State Council said. It represented “the only practical framework for this stage, which ultimately aims to hold elections in accordance with a permanent constitution that guarantees the values of democracy and human rights and prevents the nightmare of military coups”.
The statement came after 102 members attended the State Council’s 18th regular meeting in Tripoli on Wednesday at which moves on the LPA and the Serraj-Hafter encounter were discussed. Also discussed were the visits of State Council president Abdulrahman Sewehli to The Netherlands, Tunisia and Turkey.
