Libyans agree to continue to work on UN-sponsored political agreement

TRIPOLI, Feb. 22– Libya’s eastern-based House of Representatives
(parliament) and the Tripoli-based Higher Council of State agreed on
Tuesday to continue consultations to amend the UN-sponsored political
agreement in preparation for a constitutional referendum and elections.

The deal was reached after their talks at the headquarters of the UN
mission in Tripoli, hosted by the Special Representative of the UN
Secretary General and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL),
Ghassan Salame. “The meeting covered some consensual proposals and
formulas to enable the two councils to choose a strong executive authority
that achieves a comprehensive consensus and is capable of unifying the
state institutions and addressing the challenges Libya is going through in
this sensitive stage,” the Higher Council of State said in a statement.
“The two sides agreed to present the results of this meeting to the two
councils and to continue communicating in the coming days, in order to
reach consensus on amending the political agreement, leading to formation
of a unified and effective executive authority,” it added.

Earlier on Tuesday, Salame met with Abdurrahman Swehli, the head of the
Higher Council of State, and discussed means to end the political stalemate
in the country, as well as updates to the political agreement and the
mechanism for selecting a new presidential council. The parliament approved
a compromise formula proposed by Salame last year on amendments to the
agreement. However, the Higher Council of State rejected it. The
amendments, mainly related to executive authority, are part of an action
plan Salame proposed in September to end the political crisis in Libya. The
plan also includes holding parliamentary and presidential elections before
the end of 2018. Libya is suffering a political division between the
eastern government based in Tobruk and the western government based in
Tripoli backed by the UN. – XINHUA