By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 30 September 2017:
A hint of urgency has arrived during talks on amendments to the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) after members of the Joint Drafting committee in Tunis concluded their fifth day of talks.
The UN organisation said that committee members from both sides had agreed they should “intensify” their meetings with Dialogue committee members from both the House of Representatives (HoR) and the State Council (SC). This, it said, was being done “out of keenness to achieve results and create consensus on an initial draft for the amendments”.
After five days the committee is still having in-depth discussions on the composition, structure and responsibilities of the “executive authority”, said UNSMIL, and considering how members of the Presidency Council (PC) should be selected.
It added in a statement, that today was the first time that the committee had begun talking about the LPA’s Article 8. This is a major sticking point for the HoR because it would transfer the key power to appointment military commanders and management of state institutions, such as the Central Bank of Libya and the Libya Investment Authority, from the parliament to the PC .
UNSMIL also reported that members discussed articles relating to the constitution and said its new chief, Ghassan Salamé again had been part of the talks.