Local Editor
Libyan lawmakers are set to sign a disputed UN-sponsored agreement on a unity government Thursday despite a warning from the heads of rival parliaments that the deal has no legitimacy.
World powers urged the country’s warring factions to break a political deadlock that allowed extremists and smugglers to flourish since the fall of Dictator Muammar Gadhafi in 2011.
Relatively, a group of parliamentarians is due to sign the UN-backed deal in a ceremony in the Moroccan resort of Skhirat at 11:00 GMT.
However, Nouri Abusahmein, who heads the militia-backed General National Congress in Tripoli that is not recognized by the international community, said Wednesday that the signatories did not represent the parliaments.
On Tuesday in Malta, Abusahmein met Aguila Saleh who heads the internationally recognized parliament based in Tobruk in the east near the border with Egypt.
It was the first time they meet since the rival administrations were formed in 2014. At a joint news conference, both men said that those who sign the agreement represent only themselves.
Earlier on Sunday, a gathering in Rome of a US-Italian-led group of world powers and regional players called on the country’s warring factions to lay down their arms and back the new unity government.
The country was mired in chaos since the 2011 overthrow and killing of long-time dictator Gadhafi.
Source: Al-Ahed news
