The signing of the UN-brokered Libya Dialogue agreement known as the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) will take place in the Moroccan resort of Skhirat tomorrow rather than today, Wednesday, as planned, Moroccan officials have confirmed.
The delay is said to be caused by the logistical problems of getting as many key players as possible from Libya to Skhirat in time.
The agreement is to be signed by most of the Libyan negotiators in the Dialogue who have been with it since it first met in its present format in January. They do not include those who have since resigned, notably Benghazi House of Representatives (HoR) member Abubakr Buera and independent participant Sharif Al-Wafi. Moreover others who will be signing, such as deputy General National Congress (GNC) president Saleh Makhzoum, had been replaced as delegates.
However, in the absence of any formal approval from the House of Reprtesentatives (HoR) or the General National Congress (GNC) for the LPA, mainly because the two bodies’ presidents refused to allow a vote to take place, the UN special envoy Martin Kobler has sought to take a significant number of other Libyan political players to Skhirat to sign it, including as many as possible of the HoR and GNC members who support the deal plus party leaders and mayors.
The signing will, as far as the international community is concerned, usher in the Government of National Accord (GNA), led by prime minister-designate Faiez Serraj. At Sunday’s conference in Rome, chaired by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni, 17 countries including the five permanent members of the Security council and seven Arab states plus the UN, Arab League, EU and African Union gave their full backing to the GNA, adding that they would not allow any Libyan state body, such as the Central Bank of Libya and the National Oil Corporation, that did not submit to the its authority to operate worldwide.
So far, however, there has been no announcement of the three extra names to be included in the planned presidential council that will choose the other government ministers within 40 days of the signing.
The council which will act as Libya’s collective presidency is to have nine members in total (three each from Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan), of whom six have already been named: Faiez Serraj (prime minister), Ahmed Maetig, Fathi Majbri and Musa Koni (deputy prime ministers), and Omar Aswad and Mohamed Ammar (senior ministers). It was agreed at the Libya Dialogue meeting in Tunis on Friday that the names of the three (two from Fezzan and the other from Cyrenaica) had to be ready in time for the Skhirat signing. The choice of the extra southern deputy PM is to be made by southern municipal representatives together with Makhzoum, who is from Sebha and HoR delegate Saleh Hama, from Ghat. It is then to be endorsed by the GNC delegates attending the talks.
Without officially being removed the GNC, the Tripoli-based “government” of Khalifa Ghwell is extremely unlikely to resign to make way for the GNA.
It is not known what Thinni administration in Beida will do.
By Libya Herald reporter.
