The Tobruk-based, internationally-recognized, House of Representatives(HoR) submitted names some time ago. The Tripoli-based General National Congress(GNC) met recently and decided not to send names until further amendments were made to the final draft agreement. Mohammed Amari was selected for the state minister’s position and Leon proposed Abdul-Rahman Al-Swahili as president of the State Council.
Amari said he was astonished by Leon’s announcement of the names, all of which can be found in a United Nations Support Mission in Libya(UNSML) news release. Amari noted that the GNC had not submitted any names. He said that the GNC would hold an urgent meeting to discuss the announcement. Neither the GNC nor the HoR have approved the final draft of the LPA as yet. In fact the HoR rejected it earlier but Leon convinced the HoR to send negotiators to a UN meeting in New York and also to the recent meeting in Skhirat, Morocco, where the names were chosen.
Al-Swahili refused the post of president of the State Council. He also claimed that the proposed GNA did not meet minimum requirements for the success for a political agreement: “Leon should know that he is not to decide who will be the president of state council. Leon used my name to approve his proposed government project, which the GNC was not part of.”
The LIbya Herald, a pro-HoR news source, noted that Al-Swahili’s nomination was one of a number of changes in the final text of the LPA which Leon claimed was unalterable when the GNC demanded further amendments. Article 21 of the text says that “in its first meeting, the State Council shall elect its President, two deputies and a rapporteur, and shall develop its own bylaws.”
Leon must have been desperate to come up with the names of the GNA and has been under great pressure from the international community to do so. No doubt many countries want to derail the plans of Khalifa Haftar. Appointing Al Swahili to a senior position was meant to “bribe” a hard line opponent of the deal to accept it. As the Herald points out: In June, the United States, backed by Britain and France, recommended that Sewehli, a longstanding British resident, be subject to an asset freeze and travel ban in a proposal to the UN, accusing him of “pressing for a Libya Dawn attack against the oil port of Sidra in February and the siege of government ministries by revolutionary militias”.
The person named prime minister of the GNA is Faiez Al-Serraj, a member of the HoR from the suburb of Hay Andalous, in the west of Tripoli. Al-Serraj was not on the list of the HoR list of nominees, or that of any other Libyan body. However, Leon said he had won approval for Serraj’s appointment from the delegates present at Skhirat. The LPA was also changed to include six rather than five members of a new presidential council that will be headed by Serrraj. The final draft has to be approved by both the GNC and the HoR. Neither is likely to approve the draft and both could ask for further changes. Both will probably put off as long as they can rejecting the LPA outright since each wants to avoid being blamed for the failure of the LPA.
As usual, there is no mention of a parallel military dialogue with the forces of the HoR commanded by Khalifa Haftar and the militia of the rival GNC government. Haftar rejects negotiations with them, rejects the LPA, rejects a ceasefire. He has been carrying out a military operation against the GNC and its armed forces and allies since May of 2014. This Operation Dignity is supported by the HoR. Without such an agreement no political agreement is enforceable as Leon himself has said several times.
The dialogue is an elaborate show meant to convey to the public that the international community is committed to a peaceful solution to the crisis when there is almost zero chance of this working. Egypt, UAE, the Arab League, and probably Russia are already supporting Khalifa Haftar and his plan B in actuality while endorsing Leon’s plan at the level of rhetoric. The U.S. and the EU are being sidelined.
