By Saber Ayyub.
Tripoli, 7 June 2015:
Participating and boycotting members of the House of Representatives (HoR) have jointly given their full support . . .[restrict]to the UN-brokered dialogue process, saying that the threat from the Islamic State (IS) is far more important than their own divisions.
In a statement issued in Al-Asabeh near Gharyan, south of Tripoli, following their meeting on Friday, the two groups also called for national reconciliation, for all hostages and prisoners taken by either side in the divide to be released, and for all displaced people to be allowed to their towns and homes. The country needed to concentrate instead on fighting IS, they insisted.
There are conflicting accounts of how many HoR members took part in the talks in Al-Asabeh, which has brokered a number of meetings between belligerents from closer afield, most recently between neighbouring Gharyan and Zintanis and Warshefanis.
According to some reports, 50 delegates from both sides turned up. Another report has nine boycotters and 36 participators.
The latter would represent a remarkable logistical feat given the opposition to the HoR in the area.
The nine boycotting HoR members said to have participated have been named as:
- Mohamed Mansur Ehneish (Misrata)
- Ali Bu-Zariba (Zawia)
- Mohamed Alfaituri Al-Hanish (Zawia)
- Ali Gharifa (Sebha)
- Tarek Bu-Houisa (Yefern)
- Salah Zubaik ( Gharyan)
- Akram Khalifa (Kekla)
- Amar Shaibaru (Zawia)
- Naser Al-Ghariani (Ghat)
The names of the participants have not been published apart from Abdulwahab Zuliya from Al-Asabeh itself, Salah Bilhoug from nearby Rujban and Amal Bayu from Benghazi. [/restrict]
