Libya’s constitutional track meeting affirm importance of abandoning differences between parties

CAIRO – 19 January 2020: Head of the Egyptian National Committee affiliated with the Libyan crisis praised, Tuesday the Libyan parties’ stances during the constitutional track meeting in Hurghada between the Parliament delegations and the Supreme Council of the Libyan State.

He added in his speech during the opening session of the constitutional track meeting, that all involved parties have a real willingness to reach a solution to solve the crises.

He also stressed the importance of abandoning all differences between the Libyan parties and take advantage of this historic opportunity to agree on a unified Libyan constitutional base that would allow the Libyan national elections to be held on December 24 to end the Libyan crisis.

The UN envoy to Libya Stephanie Williams praised the Egyptian efforts to resolve the Libyan crisis and the Egyptian leadership’s keenness to stabilize Libya, stressing the need for the delegations of Parliament and the State Council meeting in Hurghada to agree on the constitutional arrangements in the next phase, given the importance of this meeting and its connection with the outputs of other tracks and discussions.

During her speech via video call during the meetings of the constitutional track of the Parliament and State Council delegations, Williams indicated that in case the Libyan parties failed to reach an agreement during the current meetings in Hurghada; this will reflect with a very negative repercussions on other Libyan tracks, including the security and economic situation.

“You have a great responsibility to reach consensus regarding the constitutional arrangements", Williams said.

She affirmed her support for the constructive dialogue between the two Libyan councils, adding that she awaits the results of the dialogue at the end of the 60-day deadline in accordance with article 4 of the Libyan Road Map, hoping that it will produce positive results that will help achieving stability and supporting the results of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum.

The constitutional track meetings of Libyan delegations of Parliament and the Supreme Council of State kicked off Tuesday in Egypt’s Hurghada under the auspices of the United Nations aiming to reach the constitutional arrangements leading to the general elections on December 24.

The Libyan constitutional path was launched in Cairo in October 14 under the auspices of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, to hold consultations between the delegations of Parliament and the High Council of State.

The Libyan parties held talks earlier in Hurghada, Egypt. They called for the acceleration of the opening of air and land transportation lines, in a way that guarantees freedom of movement for citizens in all Libyan cities.

 The talks called for the immediate release of everyone detained without conditions or restrictions, as well as stopping the campaigns of media escalation and hate speech and replacing them with the speech of tolerance and reconciliation, to reject violence and terrorism.

The United Nations Support Mission in Libya expressed its gratitude to the Egyptian government for its efforts to facilitate the convening of this important round of Libyan talks, and commended the efforts of the members of the two delegations, welcoming the reached results.

The mission expressed hope that this positive development will contribute to paving the way for the Libyan parties to agree on a final and permanent ceasefire shortly.

Earlier, Egypt’s President Sisi met with LAAF head, Commander KhalifaHaftar, and Libyan Parliamentary Speaker Aguila Saleh in Cairo, to discuss efforts to resolve the Libyan crisis. Both Libyan officials emphasized that any initiative to solve the crisis in the war-torn country has to include “the removal of Turkish-backed mercenaries and militias”.