By Ali Salem.
Tripoli, 28 October 2014:
Rounding off his agenda in Tripoli today before flying to Tunis, the UN Special Envoy to . . .[restrict]Libya, Bernardino Leon, held talks with Libya’s Grand Mufti, Sheikh Sadik Al Ghariani, and, shortly afterwards, with the governor of the Central Bank of Libya, Saddek Elkaber, in order to inform both of the UN initiative and seek their support.
Leon, who arrived in Tripoli yesterday from Tobruk, was in the country to assess the situation and see whether there was a possibility for a further national dialogue session in the immediate future. The first, deemed to have been a success, took place in Ghadames exact a month ago.
There is reported to be growing pessimism on the matter. “The present atmosphere is not conducive”, a source close to Leon said today. He pointed out that among House of Representatives members in Tobruk there was now a feeling that a military solution could work while those members boycotting its sessions were insisting not only that its decisions be accepted as invalid because power had not been formally handed transferred from the former Congress but also that, once formally instituted, any major decisions the HoR took would have to have a two-thirds majority. This, apparently, is in order to “protect the minority”.
Throughout this trip, Leon avoided meeting members of the former General National Congress or of the Omar Al-Hassi “government” appointed by Congress on the grounds that they have no legitimacy. He has met, however, with those who support Libya Dawn and the Hassi group providing they themselves have legitimate authority – such as, yesterday, the elected mayors of Tripoli, Kikla and Gharian, and today the Grand Mufti.
In the case of the Central Bank governor, the Libya Herald has been told that although Elkaber has been sacked by the House of Representatives, he was appealing that decision through the courts and therefore the situation was unresolved.
Nonetheless, in his meetings in Tripoli yesterday, which included one with a small group of HoR boycotters, and today with Ghariani and Elkaber, Leon is reported to have stressed that the HoR and the Thinni administration were the only legitimate legislature and government.
During his meeting with Ghariani, the latter is reported to have told the UN Special Envoy that while international support for stability in Libya was important, it was the duty of the international community to tell Egypt to stop interfering in Libya. [/restrict]
