29 Mar – 4 Apr: HoR issues terms for participation in dialogue

Apr 4, 2017 | Libyan actors

On 3 April, the House of Representatives (HoR) voted on its terms for participating in the political dialogue discussions about the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA). It voted to withdraw from the dialogue process in March. According to an HoR member, the conditions include: reducing the Presidential Council (PC) to three people, who will then appoint a separate prime minister; the High Council of State (HCS) to consist of those elected to the General National Congress (GNC) on 7 July 2012; the Libyan National Army (LNA), under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and instituted by the HoR, to be recognised as the sole legitimate armed force; and Article 8 of the LPA, which gives the PC control over all senior military posts, to be removed.

HoR president Agila Saleh has appointed Mohamed Belgassem Zway as his advisor for Maghreb Affairs. Zway was close to Muammar Qadhafi and was the Secretary-General of the General People’s Congress from early 2010 till the 2011 uprisings.  He was sentenced to a 12 year prison sentence in July 2015 for his involvement in the Qadhafi regime, but was freed a year later on health grounds.  On 30 March, the Zintan Military Council issued a letter addressed to the LNA saying that Khalifa Haftar’s appointment of Qadhafi-era officials was unacceptable.