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Op-Ed: UN deadline passes with no sign of a Libyan unity government

The UN special envoy to Libya, Bernardino Leon, had set today, October 20, as the deadline for approval of his latest draft of the Libyan Political Agreement. The internationally-recognized House of Representatives(HoR) met only yesterday to vote on the agreement. It ended up not taking a vote at all. The mandate of the HoR ran out today but the HoR has unilaterally extended it. It was supposed to be extended when the HoR was part of the GNA and under its terms.

The rival General National Congress(GNC) government based in Tripoli has not voted on the draft either, although it has met and had discussions on the draft. In both parliaments, individuals and groups associated with each parliament have rejected the draft but without any formal vote. This has led to a number of inexact reports as in Reuters which claims:”Libya’s internationally-recognised parliament decided on Monday to reject a United Nations proposal for a unity government, lawmakers said, in a blow to efforts to end a political crisis.” France24 makes the same claim. The pro-Tobruk Libya Herald points out that there was no vote on the draft agreement. The France24 report also notes this even in the face of their claim that the HoR rejected the draft. Neither parliament wants to formally reject the draft because of the reaction it might bring from the UN and international community which threatens to impose sanctions on those impeding the formation of the GNA.

What happened was that Saleh Ghalma a member of the HoR and “general rapporteur” said that a majority of the HoR members rejected the proposed unity government. Even the Reuters report noted that the parliament spokesperson Faraj Hashem, while confirming the rejection, said that the HoR had not voted on it. Apparently the president of the HoR just read a statement and then left, according to Hashem.

The Libya Herald provides somewhat more detail on yesterday’s meeting. The session was attended by 135 members. The members insisted that the only draft acceptable to the HoR was one initialled far back on July 11. This is a draft rejected by the GNC and they did not take part in the session which initialled the draft. Subsequently Leon produced a final draft which addressed some of the GNC concerns. This was initially rejected by the HoR but Leon managed to convince HoR representatives to carry on with the dialogue and also attend a gala UN meeting in New York, where dozens of countries urged the two governments to approve the deal. There were further meetings and a final draft issued, which had names of important officials of the GNA. Leon unilaterally changed this in a number of ways, angering both sides. To demand that Leon return to the July draft is simply to destroy the entire dialogue since it ensures that the GNC will not participate. The move is a transparent attempt to try make the GNC to blame for the failure of the dialogue. The HoR decided at the same time that it would continue with the dialogue process but was changing its negotiation team.

A statement was read out that was supposed to be a unanimous decision of the HoR, even though there had been no vote. One member claimed subsequently that 70 of his colleagues had disagreed with the whole process and wished to disassociate themselves from the statement. They said they would issue a separate statement, distancing themselves from what they called the supposed decision of the HoR today. The HoR actions are intended to present impossible demands to Leon while not accepting the present draft, but at the same time avoiding any formal rejection of the draft by a vote. As well as changing the negotiating team, the HoR decision rejected all of Leon’s names for the Presidency Council and his addition of another deputy prime minister to represent the south.

The GNC has not voted on the draft either, although a number of individuals and bodies from the GNC have criticized the draft including the GNC Political Committee which claims: “Leon refused to include GNC amendments, but on the other hand, he amended the draft himself.” The Committee noted. It admitted that pressure is being exerted on the GNC to sign the agreement.”The current UNSMIL draft is unbalanced and it does not exclude coup plotters while it includes Khalifa Haftar.” It adds. It is not clear why the group thinks Khalifa Haftar is included, except perhaps that he is not made ineligible to serve as the GNC would like. Haftar rejects the LPA in part because he is not made commander in chief . Instead senior officials of the GNA carry out that role.

In spite of the fact that Leon’s deadline has passed and there is no sign of a GNA, the latest report from the UN Support Mission in Libya(UNSML) website is about a huge meeting in London designed to discuss ways of helping out the non-existent GNA. No members of the internationally-recognized HoR were present. Leon is being replaced soon. Perhaps he will just leave his successor to deal with this mess.

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