Late Monday, in the Moroccan resort city of Skhirat where dialogue talks had taken place, the UN Special Envoy to Libya, Bernardino Leon, announced a final text had been written with no further revisions being allowed. He said work on the draft was finished and it now requires approval from the two parliaments. However, after the Eid holiday on this Thursday, negotiators are to return to Skhirat to name members of the new Government of National Accord. Leon said formal signing of the LPA must take place before October 20, when the mandate of the HoR expires.
At the time the HoR rejected a recent draft from Leon, they also agreed they would extend their mandate beyond October 20. Khalfa Haftar, the commander of the HoR armed forces who rejects the LPA, is pushing for a military council to run Libya after October 20. These plans obviously conflict with that of Leon and his international backers. Haftar has been urging a military council to take over the government for some time. It is not clear that the HoR and prime minister Al-Thinni can control Haftar. Haftar has twice prevented Al-Thinni from flying out of Libya within one week. Haftar may want Al-Thinni to stay around and ensure that the HoR rejects the final draft of the LPA. Thinni is a very weak individual, which is probably why he is tolerated as a prime minister. He recently said he was resigning after being criticized on TV. He later relented, no doubt under pressure to do so.
Conflict with Haftar is not new for Al-Thinni. When the parliament buildings were attacked and burned by Haftar allies in May of 2014 as part of his Operation Dignity, Al-Thinni was interim prime minister and condemned the attack, considering it an attempted coup: Some government troops and aircraft were said to have taken part in the operation, but acting Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni condemned it as illegal and “a coup against the revolution”.
A warrant was out for Haftar’s arrest after a failed earlier coup in February. Of course Haftar was never arrested. He is untouchable. Al-Thinni later made Haftar commander of the armed forces in the HoR government. Haftar has connections with the CIA and is an American citizen, having spent many years in exile in the United States.
Leon has released no new details of the deal. The text does not appear attached to his press release nor anywhere else that I can find. Given that the agreement will be discussed by the two parliaments we should expect some leaks of details soon. So far the HoR has said nothing. Mohammed Amari, a GNC negotiator, said significant progress had taken place in the dialogue, and praised the final draft agreement, indicating that most of the concerns of the GNC had been met. He said GNC negotiators would go back to Skhirat after the Eid holiday that ends on Thursday. If the GNC concerns have mostly been met this could signify that the HoR will not be pleased with the new draft. It is also possible that the GNC parliament could view the draft in a quite different light than their negotiators.
