While one report speaks simply of a meeting of competing factions another speaks of the meeting as of the Libya Dialogue. The Libya Dialogue members as of now are those who signed the Libya Political Agreement (LPA) at Skhirat last December. The LPA set up the UN-brokered GNA.
As part of the agreement, the HoR is required to vote confidence in the GNA to start its term. The HoR then becomes the legislature of the GNA. However, on August 22 the HoR held a vote of confidence in the GNA which was defeated with 61 against, 31 abstentions and one in favor. The GNA was to have come up with a new reduced cabinet by last Thursday. Perhaps this meeting will attempt to forge agreement on a new government, but we are given little concrete information about the talks which are set to last two days in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia.
One report suggests the following general aim of the talks: Faction leaders have been invited to meetings in the Tunisian capital expected to last several days, aimed at restarting a political process stalled after the House of Representatives parliament in the eastern city of Tobruk rejected a cabinet of the United Nations-supported Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.
I find this a bit odd. The process should be not be stalled in that the GNA have been ordered to come up with a new list of eight ministers to replace the 17 in the present GNA. It must mean that the GNA has been unable to come up with the suggested government in spite of several meetings lately. One recent meeting had only four of nine Presidential Council members present. The U.S.’s Libya envoy Jonathan Winer, in a tweet, speaks of the meeting also as of the Political Dialogue: “Political Dialogue meeting in Tunis can help guide Libya political institutions to reaching solutions as alternative to confrontation.”
The situation is complicated by the fact that the HoR has decided to replace its original members of the Dialogue with new members, 13 in all compared to the original four. Two members from the original group are retained in the new list. Ageela Saleh, president of the HoR, sent a letter to the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) about the new list. The HoR representation is expected to be only four members as before and will be chosen by the UNSMIL rather than the HoR. Spokesperson for the HoR, Abdullah Belheeq said: “The letter was sent to organize the work of the team in administrative and legal ways with the coming of the fresh meeting of the political dialogue on Monday and Tuesday in Tunisia under the supervision of the UNSMIL.” All of the 13 members are said to oppose the LPA except for two. It seems unlikely that the UNSMIL will accept the new list since it adds more representatives to the HoR faction and also includes mostly those in opposition to the LPA. PM and head of the Presidency Council (PC) is expected to join the discussion on Tuesday. We should know more of what is happening in a day or so.
