Libya dialogue committee presents UN envoy with demands

By Jihad Nasr

TRIPOLI, Libya (AA) - A Libyan parliamentary dialogue committee has presented a list of demands to Ghassan Salame, the UN’s special envoy for Libya, within the context of ongoing talks in Tunisia aimed at resolving the country’s ongoing political crisis.

Libya’s main political camps are currently holding talks in next-door Tunisia with a view to amending a 2015 UN-sponsored agreement that gave rise to Libya’s Tripoli-based unity government.

The committee’s demands, presented to Salame by committee chairman Abdul Salam Nasyah, calls for the inclusion in the Tunisia talks of Libyan lawmakers who resigned in 2014 following elections for Libya’s Tobruk-based House of Representatives.

Libya’s authoritative Supreme State Council was drawn up subsequently from lawmakers who did not resign.

The committee’s list, which has been seen by Anadolu Agency, also includes demands for the annulment of a legal article that gives sweeping powers to Libya’s Tripoli-based Presidential Council rather than the Tobruk-based House of Representatives.

On Monday, the parliamentary committee, which is affiliated with the Tobruk-based assembly, suspended its participation in the Tunisia talks, with Nasyah accusing the Supreme State Council of not being serious about resolving points of contention.

Last month, Salame unveiled a new roadmap for resolving Libya’s ongoing political crisis.

The plan, which calls for holding presidential and parliamentary polls within one year, is aimed at the eventual establishment of a “unified, representative” government under the framework of the 2015 Skhirat Agreement.

Libya has been roiled by violence and chaos since 2011, when a bloody uprising led to the ouster and death of President Muammar Gaddafi after more than four decades in power.

The resultant power vacuum led to the emergence of several competing seats of government and a plethora of heavily-armed militia groups.