Speaker of the House of Representatives (Parliament) of Libya Aguila Saleh and Chairman of the High State Council (HSC) of the country Khaled al-Mishri will hold talks in Cairo in the coming days, a representative of the office of the head of the HSC said on Thursday.
"The meeting between Saleh and al-Mishri will take place in the next two days in the Egyptian capital," he said. The spokesman for al-Mishri's office added that after the talks in Cairo, the sides intend to hold consultations in the Libyan city of Zintan.
The last meeting between the heads of the Libyan parliament and the HSC also took place in Cairo last November. At that time, the parties discussed the functioning of the future unified executive authorities, as well as specific names of Libyan personalities nominated by the Parliament and the HSC to sovereign positions in the Libyan power structures. It was noted that by that time the Libyan parties had made significant progress towards common ground.
A week later, however, members of the House of Representatives voted in favor of the draft law on establishing a new Constitutional Court in Libya. In turn, the head of the HSC said that such a decision of the parliament "goes beyond its powers" and appealed to all state structures of Libya "to consider it (the law) to be invalid and not be accepted for execution". At the same time, al-Mishri said he was suspending all contact with parliamentary representatives, including its speaker Saleh.
Only in late December were Saleh and al-Mishri able to overcome their disagreement over the law on the Constitutional Court: the parties agreed not to issue a new law, so that it would not conflict with the constitutional framework, which is currently being formed and should be the legal basis for the upcoming national elections.
Libya now effectively has two cabinets: one in the east, headed by Fathi Bashagha, who is supported by the parliament, and the Government of National Unity, headed by Abdel Hamid Dbeibeh, and headquartered in Tripoli. On June 22, the transitional period set by the UN as a result of the Geneva accords expired, by the end of which Libya should have had an elected president and parliament. However, the elections scheduled for last December were canceled, and a date has not yet been set.
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Photo: imago images/photothek/TASS
Based on materials from TASS