By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 19 October 2014:
The President of the House of Representatives, Ageela Saleh, arrived in Chad last night for . . .[restrict]a two-day visit at the invitation of Chadian President Idriss Deby.
According to the HoR, the meeting between the two are focussing on border security as well as other issues. The two countries are looking to stem the flood of illegal immigrants streaming across Libya’s porous borders. Libya and Chad share a border of more than a thousand kilometres.
The invitation is seen as a bid by N’Djamena to mend metaphorical as well as literal fences with Libya. Last month, despite Chad agreeing at the Libya neighbours’ conference in August in Cairo that the House of Representatives, not the former Congress, was Libya’s sole legitimate legislature and that Libya’s militias should be disarmed, it welcomed a visiting delegation composed of former Congress leader Nuri Abu Sahmain and prominent Muslim Brotherhood members Ali Salabi and Nizar Kawan, the latter a member of the rump Congress which claims it is still in power. All three held talks with Deby and were treated as official Libyan representatives, much to the anger of the HoR and the Thinni government.
The visit was an attempt by the Congress and its Libya Dawn allies to gather international and regional support.
Since then, Chad has apparently changed views. Today, following the talks with Saleh, Deby said that his county recognised only the HoR as Libya’s legitimate authority. Deby is also reported to have told Saleh that the visit by the three was unofficial and they were were not regarded as representing Libya.
Libya and Chad have a long and often bitter history of involvement in each other’s affairs. [/restrict]
