The EU is planning to sanction Salah along with two leaders of the rival General National Congress (GNC) based in Tripoli. Salah claimed he had nothing to fear from the sanctions. He also added that the Constitutional Declaration must be honored. Presumably, he means that the Declaration must be amended to incorporate the GNA as required by the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA). Salah said he was not worried about sanctions since he did not have any bank accounts or property in Libya or abroad. He said the sanctions were being used simply as a form of coercion.
To critics who claim that he prevented a vote on the GNA by not attending meetings, Salah noted that he had “attended HoR meetings throughout the past months.” He claims that the failure to vote was caused by the failure of HoR members not to turn up and a vote was lacking because there was no quorum. This is certainly true of the latest attempts to have a vote on Monday and Tuesday, with less than two dozen members showing up. Where are all the roughly 100 members who signed a letter in favor of the GNA? If they favor the GNA, why do they not bother to show up to vote? Is it that they do not need to, since the Presidency Council and prime minister Faiez Serraj have decided that the letter itself is sufficient to declare itself now the legitimate government of LIbya and will move to Tripoli? Why is the UN not complaining about the HoR members who support the GNA not showing up at HoR meetings?
Salah claimed HoR members had complete freedom to express their views. However, at least one session was disrupted and closed down with some members complaining of being coerced. Salah also said that he himself supported the GNA on condition that there was the required amendment to the Constitutional Declaration of 2011. This requirement seems all but ignored in the press and of course by Martin Kobler UN Special Representative of the Secretary General in Libya.
Meanwhile, in other news of Libya, the GNC in Tripoli is threatening the GNA as it claims it will move at least some of its members to Tripoli. A GNC statement said: “A government that has been imposed from abroad without the consensus of Libyans… has no place amongst us.” The GNC said that any unity government must arise from “an inter-Libyan accord” presumably referring to the results of the ongoing Libya-Libya dialogue.
