Zintan MPs invite Serraj, Hafter and Ageela Saleh to hold talks in mountain town

By Libya Herald reporter.

Tunis, 23 June 2017:

In a further sign of Zintan’s efforts to move to the middle ground between the Tripoli-based Presidency Council (PC) and the authorities in the east, the town’s two members of the House of Representatives, Abdussalam Nassiyah and Omar Abu Kadr Karmil, have invited PC head Faiez Serraj, House of Representatives President Ageela Saleh and the head of the Libyan National Army, Khalifa Hafter, to take part in tripartite talks in the mountain town.

Such discussion could break the current political deadlock, Nassiyah said, expressing the hope that there could be real national accord in the country.

It is far from certain that such talks will see the light of day. Ageela Saleh is known to be wholly opposed to any dialogue with Serraj while Hafter,  in the wake of last month’s massacre of LNA soldiers at Brak Al-Shatti,  has said that all contacts and agreements with Serraj were now over.

Zintan has been firmly in the Hafter and HoR camp for the past two years. However, it has also been increasingly reaching out to the PC in recent weeks, in particular since Serraj appointed its veteran military leader Osama Juwaili as military commander of the county’s western region earlier this month. Just this week Zintani officials met with Serraj to work out plans for internally displaced people living in Zintan to return to the capital.