By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 21 October 2017:
The Joint Drafting Committee talks broke up today in Tunis without resolving key differences, not least the power to appoint top military and civilian officials. Under Article 8 of the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) this capacity is transferred from the House of Representatives (HoR) to the Presidency Council (PC).
UNSMIL chief Ghassan Salaméchose to emphasise the many points on which the Dialogue teams from the HoR and the State Council (SC) had agreed. But no date has been set for them to reconvene. Nor is it clear what will happen with the three sub-committees mooted yesterday to look at respectively, the appointment and approval of a new three-member PC and of a prime minister; the key Article 8 and that the SC should, as set out in the LPA, be made up members of the old parliament, the General National Congress, who were elected in 2012 or those who subsequently replaced them.
Salamé once again praised the spirit in which members of the committee had worked. He congratulated them on establishing its operating rules.
He said UNSMIL would continue to promote the action plan that had been approved by the UN Security Council last month.
“It is the firm belief of the Mission” he said, “that awakened and capable institutions that rise above individual interests is what we should all aspire to in order to establish an effective and fair Libyan State”.
