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By Libya Herald staff.
Tunis, 20 February 2015:
Sharif Al-Wafi and Tawfiq Shuhabi, both former members of Congress who are political delegates in . . .[restrict]the UN-brokered dialogue process, have announced that they will boycott the next round of talks starting Sunday in Morocco following today’s deadly car bombs in Guba in which 53 are now said to have been killed. According to Al-Wafi, a third member, whom he did not name, may also join the boycott.
The talks had become “a waste of time”, Al-Wafi told the Libya Herald; people were dying while the delegates and the UN debated. Moreover, he claimed, they were now “a trick”. The UN planned to hand the delegates the names for a government of national unity for their approval “without asking our opinion”. He said that until yesterday, when the delegates were told about the Morocco meeting, UN Special Envoy Bernardino Leon had not been in touch with him and others since the Ghadames gathering on 11 February.
He may have been in contact with Saleh Makhzoum, the leader of the delegation from Congress, and with Emhemed Shouaib, the Deputy President of House of Representatives, but “Emhemed is not our boss,” Al-Wafi said.
At the very least, he added, the talks had to be postponed until later next week out of respect for those who had died in today’s attacks, which have been claimed by the Islamic State.
During the day, there has been a wave of calls on social media by bloggers, authors, activists for the House of Representatives to now boycott the dialogue. Demonstrators in Benghazi too called for an end to the dialogue. However, it is not thought that many others will follow Al-Wafi’s and Shuhabi’s lead although even a small number could be enough to derail it.
By contrast, delegates from the continuing Congress are thought to be planning to take part in the Morocco meeting despite having previously said that they would not join talks if held outside Libya as well as the statement yesterday by Tripoli premier Omar Al-Hassi that there should be no further dialogue until the UN took action against Egypt for the raid on Derna. [/restrict]
