Today, Monday, a second round of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum started
In an effort to agree on basic issues, including the composition of the next presidential council, a meeting will also be held simultaneously in Morocco to unify the divided Libyan parliament.
The United Nations Mission in Libya announced - in a brief statement - the start of the second round of the Forum for Political Dialogue via video technology, with the participation of Acting Head of Mission Stephanie Williams.
The official account of the mission on Twitter published pictures of Williams and Libyan personalities participating in the virtual meeting, which is a continuation of the previous round that was held over a week in Tunisia under the auspices of the United Nations as well.
The Anadolu News Agency quoted a member of the Libyan Supreme Council of State and the Forum for Political Dialogue, Abdul Qadir Hawili, as saying that the UN mission has determined the mechanisms for selecting the President of the Presidency Council, his two deputies, the Prime Minister and his two deputies, provided that one of them is a woman.
Last Sunday, direct talks in Tunisia were concluded, with the participation of 75 personalities representing a part of the Libyan spectrum, including members of the State and Parliament, notables and representatives of the three regions (Tripoli, Barqa and Fezzan), and they resulted in understandings about some features of the next transitional phase, but they did not reach an agreement on some Important matters.
The United Nations said that it was agreed to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on December 24 of next year, but members of the State and Parliament and the Constitutional Commission demanded that the referendum be held on the current draft constitution first.
There has also been agreement on the powers of the Presidency Council and the government, but no agreement has been reached on candidate figures for membership of the next Presidential Council, and some issues are still in dispute, the most prominent of which is determining the conditions for running for sovereign positions.
A session of the House of Representatives, held in Tripoli (Reuters)
Unifying parliament
also politically, the city of Tangier (northern Morocco) will start from today, and for 3 days, the consultative meeting of members of the Libyan House of Representatives.
The meeting aims to unify this legislative institution, which has been suffering from internal divisions since 2014, and to agree on a unified agenda during the coming period.
More than 100 Libyan MPs representing different regions of the country arrived in Tangiers.
Quadruple warning
Meanwhile, France, Germany, Britain and Italy warned today that they will take measures against those who impede the political process in Libya.
In a joint statement, the four countries welcomed the results of the first round of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum in Tunis.
European countries said that the Libyan parties' agreement to hold general elections in late December 2021 is an important step to restore sovereignty and democracy in Libya.
Haftar forces take off from Benghazi during the attack on Tripoli and other areas in western Libya (Reuters)
Military reinforcements
On the other hand, the spokesman for the Sirte and Al-Jufra Operations Room of the Government of National Accord, Brigadier General Abdul Hadi Daraa, told Al-Jazeera that there are military columns of retired Major General Khalifa Haftar moving at night in batches from the city of Benghazi, to station in the axes west of the coastal city of Sirte (450 km East of Tripoli).
He expected that the purpose of moving these forces would be an attempt to show strength after Haftar had failed politically, or to conduct military maneuvers with live ammunition among his forces, stressing that they included fighters of several nationalities.
The Libyan military commander wondered about the fate of the agreement reached at the last meeting of the Joint Military Committee in Sirte on the 12th of this month, which stipulated the start of the expulsion of mercenaries and foreign fighters from the targeted area by opening the coastal road and gathering them in Tripoli and Benghazi to leave the Libyan territories at a later stage.
The Al-Wefaq Forces had repeatedly announced the movement of military columns towards Sirte, which Haftar's forces took control of at the beginning of this year.
After regaining the southern suburbs of Tripoli and the city of Tarhuna in early June, the internationally recognized government forces headed towards Sirte, before stopping on its outskirts, amid international pressure to prevent a military confrontation there.
Last October, information was received by the Ministry of Defense in the Government of National Accord about a possible attack by Haftar's forces on the cities of Tarhuna, Gharyan and Bani Walid (western Libya), but a spokesman for Haftar denied at the time that they had planned such an action.
It is noteworthy that the Joint Military Committee - which represents the Accord government and Haftar's forces - reached on October 23 in Geneva a ceasefire agreement, which provides for the withdrawal of mercenaries from Libya within 90 days, and the formation of a joint Libyan military force run by one operations room.