By Sami Zaptia.
London, 11 February 2021:
Libya’s newly selected Presidency Council head, Mohamed Menfi (Manfi / Menefi), has arrived in Libya for the first time since he was selected by the 74 member Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) in Geneva last Friday 5 February.
The LPDF membership was selected by UNSMIL to represent all of Libya. This comes after the country’s parliament, the House of Representatives (HoR), has been in a state of political paralysis since 2014, unable to implement its constitutional duty of passing the draft constitution and conducting constitutionally based general elections to take the country out of its interim state.
Libya’s former ambassador to Greece, Menfi chose to land from Athens in Benghazi, rather than his hometown of Tobruk or the capital Tripoli. Moreover, he chose to hold his first photo call meeting with Libyan National Army (LNA) Commander, Khalifa Hafter, rather than the elected Ageela Saleh, head of the HoR.
Menfi met Hafter at a Benghazi hotel. He did not go to meet Hafter at his Rajma headquarters.
Reporting on the meeting, the LNA Command said ‘‘views were presented between the two parties, and the Commander-in-Chief (Hafter) emphasized the armed forces’ support for the peace process, the army’s endeavour to preserve democracy and the peaceful transfer of powers, and supported the new Presidency Council and the Government of National Unity (GNU) produced by the political dialogue (LPDF) to unify institutions and bring the country to the upcoming elections next December’’.
