Squabbling could still derail a Libyan deal
Whilst there is massive international pressure for both sides in Libya to form a National Unity Government, with US-based commentators asserting that a deal will be signed by the weekend, there is clear dissent within the ranks of the official government and little urgency on the part of the Libyan Dawn representatives to sign. Fighting continued in Benghazi overnight, and ﻿﻿this morning there are further reports of official government troops cutting the road between the Tunisian border and Tripoli (base of the Libyan Dawn Congress), but this is likely to be sabre-rattling more than actual offensive action and highlights the fractious nature of Libyan militia deals.

Libyan Peace settlement final roadmap will be adopted in New York according to diplomats close to the Dialogue who also indicated that the Dialogue protagonists are expected to attend the UN General Assembly Thursday and Friday.

A western diplomat indicated that the House of Representatives (HoR) in Tobruk, the General National Congress in Tripoli and other stakeholders in the Libyan Dialogue will meet on Thursday in New York for the adoption of the final text written early last week in the Moroccan seaside city of Skhirat and appoint the future Libyan Prime Minister and his two Deputies as well as the two remaining members of the presidency council.

A ceremony on Friday will mark full endorsement of the adopted text by the UN General Assembly in presence of world leaders.

The HoR has agreed to send a team to New York even though it got hold of the final text just on Tuesday night. It recently pulled out its negotiating team after the UNSMIL Chief Bernardino Leon added amendments to the July initialed Draft upon the GNC request.

It is not known yet whether the GNC will send its team to New York but strong opposition voices are emerging within the group. On Tuesday, at a workshop on the UNSMIL draft agreement held in Tripoli, Libya’s Grand Mufti Shiekh Sadiq Al-Gharyani criticized the Dialogue Process and said that the Islamic Sharia text in the UNSMIL draft should be written as in the constitutional declaration.

“This text should be protected from appeal and abrogation so it should not be part of the 2014 GNC decisions to be abrogated.” Grand Mufti said.

“It should not be left afloat within the reach of every criminal to use it to kill civilians under the pretext of fighting terrorism as Haftar does today or as others may do tomorrow, it should be defined accurately.”

Also, PM Al-Ghawiel blasted some delegate of the GNC whom he says are in haste to support the dialogue draft something Ghawiel says inconsistent with the supreme national principles.