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By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 12 May 2016:
The 94 Bloc, which represents those former members of the General National Congress who resigned in . . .[restrict]February 2014, have criticised the Presidency Council’s move to set up a Presidential Guard. The decision, announced on Monday, was illegal, a statement today from the bloc read. Issued in Benghazi, it accused the Presidency Council of usurping the powers of the supreme commander of the Libyan armed forces before the 2011 Constitutional Declaration had been amended by the House of Representatives (HoR) to hand those powers over to the Council.
At present, the HoR and its supporters consider Ageela Saleh, the president of the HoR, as Libya’s commander-in-chief.
Describing the Presidential Guard decision as in effect setting up a parallel army, the 94 Bloc claimed that all decisions flowing from the Skhirat agreement remained illegal until it was incorporated into Libya law by amending the 2011 Declaration.
The 94 Bloc is largely (but not entirely) made up of members or former members of the National Forces Alliance led by Mahmoud Jibril.
There had been reports recently that he was willing to mediate between the Presidency Council and the HoR in order to break the current political deadlock where the latter has been unable or unwilling to amend the Constitutional Declaration and appoint the Government of National Accord.
However, a week ago, in an interview with Russia’s Sputnik News, he too rejected the GNA. “This government has been forcefully imposed,” he said. “The agreement is international, not Libyan. It does not take into account the results of a political process in Libya, ignores the results of all three election campaigns where civil politicians, not Islamists, won.”
He also condemned the self-proclaimed State Council as being illegal. [/restrict]
