3 – 9 May: Swehli Appoints Dialogue Committee to Meet HoR

May 9, 2017 | International actors

Following last week’s much-touted meeting between Government of National Accord (GNA) Prime Minister Fayez al- Serraj and eastern military commander Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar in Abu Dhabi, there are rumours that a second meeting is due to take place between the two men in Cairo this week.  High Council of State (HCS) leader Abdurrahman al-Swehli and House of Representatives (HoR) president Agilah Saleh may also attend this second meeting. On 9 May, the HCS appointed a 13 member committee to join the political dialogue committee to discuss amendments to the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) with the HoR delegation.

International support for this reconciliation was reinforced through official visits on 5 and 6 May by the Foreign Ministers of the UK, Italy and Norway to Tripoli and Tubruq where they met with Serraj, Swehli and Saleh. The UN Special Envoy also met with Saleh on 6 May in an attempt to get the amendment process on track. However, on 6 May the Serraj-Haftar meeting was condemned by Libya’s Grand Mufti Sadeq al-Ghariani, as well as by an array of moderate and hardliner militias from both Tripoli and Misrata.

The Egyptian military said on 8 May that it had deployed fighter jets and helicopter gunships in several raids near the Egyptian-Libyan border and had destroyed 15 4×4 vehicles crossing into Egypt from Libya. The Egyptian military claimed the trucks were carrying weapons and other contraband but didn’t say who was driving the vehicles or give details of any casualties.