Libya Channel
Libya’s internationally recognized parliament formed an internal committee to study the latest draft of a peace proposal to end the year-long civil war, just days before a United Nations imposed deadline to reach consensus on the agreement.
Meeting on Monday in the eastern Libyan town of Tobruk, the House of Representatives appointed 19 parliamentarians to a committee that will assess the document within the coming days and suggest amendments. The House plans to vote on the amendments in a plenary session next Monday.
UN Special Envoy Bernardino Leon, who presented the fourth draft to peace talk participants during a UN-hosted 8 June meeting in Morocco, gave the country’s warring factions until the first day of Ramadan, expected to be Thursday, to come to an agreement.
But the fourth draft sparked much criticism among parliamentarians in Tobruk, who say it goes too far in trying to accommodate the interests of the rival General National Congress in Tripoli.
Crucially, the proposal designs a two-tiered system in which the HoR would be complemented by a consultative body — the so-called State Council — with wide-ranging powers, some arguably of legislative nature. Ninety out of the State Council’s 120 members would be selected from the 200 individuals elected to the GNC in 2012, making it the “Trojan Horse” of the rival camp, in the view of many HoR-supporters.
The HoR, which called the fourth draft a “disaster” first threatened to withdraw from the peace process. But its dialogue committee nevertheless attended talks last Wednesday in Berlin, where world leaders insisted on the urgency of reaching a peace agreement.
A group of 28 HoR members again met with Bernardino Leon on Sunday in Cairo to discuss the draft agreement and possible amendments. Parliamentarians Libya Channel spoke to at the margins of the closed meeting were overwhelmingly optimistic but all said the agreement could not be accepted in its present form.
According to Luay al-Ghawi, who represents Tripoli’s Souq Jumaa district, discussions mostly focused on the issue of the State Council and its legislative powers encroaching on the HoR. Despite “great resentment among parliamentarians regarding the fourth draft”, al-Ghawi said he had faith in the dialogue as “only strategic choice to get out of the crisis”. HoR member for Tripoli’s Hay al-Andalus district, Faiz al-Siraj described the Cairo meeting as “positive” and said that while “negotiations require patience” he thought the solution was near.
But there were also more critical voices, such as Benghazi MP Ziad Daghim, who at one point stormed out of the meeting room in protest over Leon’s insistence. Daghim told the Channel that — in addition to concerns over the legislative powers of the State Council — he and likeminded MPs took issue with the idea of the political dialogue board (current participants of the UN-backed dialogue process) remaining as a sort of supreme instance that steps in in case the government resigns and appoints the heads of key state institutions. Also, Daghim objected to some of the provisions regarding the National Unity Government, for instance that it is supposed to be headquartered in Tripoli.
Daghim, as well as fellow eastern Libyan parliamentarian Ibrahim Zgheid from Qaminis, reiterated the HoR’s calls that the armed forces, currently led by Khalifa Haftar, be supported internationally and form the basis of the future national army.
Zgheid also emphasized that the Cairo meeting was “not official” as it included only few MPs but an occasion to comment on the draft and convey “the opinion of the Libyan street”. There was indeed controversy surrounding the Cairo meeting as some HoR members criticized their attending colleagues for meeting with Leon at this stage and signaling willingness to reach an agreement on the basis of the present proposal.
Mediating between the two sides of the Libyan conflict since last September, the UN has great difficulties finding points of compromise on the shape of the future state. The third draft agreement, presented in late April, was firmly rejected by the GNC on grounds that it gave exclusive authority to the HoR.
The present agreement, on the other hand, was well-received in Tripoli, where a GNC statement issued on Tuesday called the fourth draft agreement “positive” and a “potential basis for a political solution”. But the GNC also requested amendments, namely recognition of the 2014 Supreme Court ruling that ordered the dissolution of the HoR. What this would mean for the future status of the legislature is unclear, given that the draft currently considers the HoR the only legitimate parliament.
It is now clear that Leon’s declared objective of having the agreement signed before the start of the holy month of Ramadan cannot be met. But if the HoR votes on amendment suggestions on Monday as planned, then negotiations could resume next week.