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By Libya Herald reporter.
Tripoli, 22 December 2015:
The presidents of the General National Congress (GNC) and the House of Representatives (HoR), Nuri . . .[restrict]Abu Sahmain and Ageela Saleh, are reportedly to be planning a second meeting, possibly in Oman tomorrow, Wednesday. They met last Tuesday in Malta.
According to Abu Sleem GNC member Mahmoud Abdulaziz and other reports in Tripoli, the two men plan to finalise details on an agreement to create their own national unity government.
Both are both adamantly opposed to the internationally-backed Government of National Accord led by Faiez Serraj. Yesterday they sent a jointly signed letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the UN Security Council and UN Special Envoy Martin Kobler repeating their demand in Malta that recognition of the GNA be delayed.
The two bodies they lead are deeply divided over which plan to support: the UN-brokered Libya Political Agreement (LPA) or the Libya-Libya dialogue being pushed by the two presidents. While it appears that a majority of the GNC are with Abu Sahmain, it is wholly unclear what the majority of HoR members support. Backers of the LPA claim they are the majority and some have announced plans to try and sack Ageela Saleh who, like his GNC counterpart, continues to refuse to allow members to express their views on the matter in a formal session. In the GNC, all “decisions” are effectively being made by Abu Sahmain himself, supported by a group of loyalists. He has now set up a committee to liaise with like-minded HoR members on their proposed Libyan unity government.
Meanwhile, in a not unexpected development, the Sharia Research and Studies Centre in Tripoli, run by Sheikh Sadek Al-Ghariani, has condemned the LPA as un-Islamic and therefore unacceptable. His views, however, carry little weight these days, even in Tripoli despite still being recognised there as Libya’s grand mufti.
The choice of Oman, officially home to Qaddafi’s widow Safia, daughter Ayesha and sons Mohamed and Hannibal (the latter, when not being kidnapped in Lebanon) is not wholly surprising. The sultanate follows the Ibadi school of Islam, also followed by many members of the Libyan Amazigh community, and the two maintain links. Abu Sahmain, from Zuwara, is Amazigh. At the same time, Oman has backed the HoR in the conflict with the GNC. [/restrict]
