A meeting between the Speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives Aguila Saleh, US Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara A. Leaf and US Special Envoy for Libya Norland, hosted in Egypt’s Cairo was held on Friday.
It aims to achieve constitutional consensus for a settlement to the general elections and transparent management of oil revenues.
Egypt has hosted several meetings in Cairo and Hurghada over the past years, as part of its efforts to help in resolving the Libyan crisis.
Earlier, Saleh sent an official letter to the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, regarding the invalidity of any memorandums of understanding concluded by the Government of National Unity (GNU) headed by Abdel Hamid Dbeibeh.
He noted that they have no legal effect and do not bind the Libyan state. Saleh explained that the Dbeibeh government’s mandate had constitutionally ended in accordance with the terms of the political agreement, and had failed to carry out its duties and tasks specified in the road map issued by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) issued in December 2020.
Egypt and Greece reaffirmed on Sunday that the outgoing Libyan Government of National Unity is not entitled to sign international deals, a few days after the Tripoli-based government signed economic and maritime deals with Turkey.
HoR Speaker said that the Dbeibeh government was involved in concluding memoranda of understanding and agreements for oil and gas exploration in the economic waters of the eastern Mediterranean with Turkey, in violation of the text Article VI, the tenth paragraph of LPDF.
It is noteworthy that the sixth article of the tenth paragraph of the political agreement stipulates that “the executive authority shall not consider, during the preliminary stage, new or previous agreements or decisions that harm the stability of the foreign relations of the Libyan state or impose long-term obligations on it.”
In March, Libya’s House of Representatives or the parliament, and the Tripoli-based High Council of State formed a joint committee to reach a firm constitutional basis for sooner national elections. The two sides reached a consensus on 37 articles of the constitution in the previous round of talks in Cario, the UN Support Mission in Libya said last month.
Libya failed to hold general elections in December 2021, due to disagreements on the election laws among the Libyan parties.
Among the main factors that led to the failure of the elections are legal challenges against articles related to the powers and the term of the president, which are sensitive points to all the Libyan parties.
