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Libya's elected parliament aims to move to Benghazi, restart UN dialogue
By Ulf Laessing
04/11/2014
CAIRO (Reuters) - Libya's elected parliament, marooned in a remote eastern town since an armed faction's seizure of the capital Tripoli, aims to relocate to its second city Benghazi soon once army units restore security there, its deputy speaker said on Tuesday.
Assembly members have been working and living in a hotel in Tobruk since August when the Islamist-leaning Misrata militia took Tripoli, effectively splitting Libya three years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.
Internationally recognized Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni was forced to move to another far-eastern town, Bayda, while the new powers-that-be in Tripoli have reinstated Libya's country's previous parliament and set up a rival government.
Diplomats and analysts say Libya is at risk of unravelling as a viable state, although the OPEC member continues to produce and export oil wealth despite the political disorder.
Deputy speaker Emhemed Shoaib said the House of Representatives now aims to move to Benghazi to regain some sense of normality, citing progress government forces have made progress towards ousting Islamist militants who had previously roamed the major port in eastern Libya unchallenged.
Fighting continued in several districts of Benghazi, which is around 1,000 km (625 miles) east of Tripoli, on Tuesday with authorities closing its seaport due to clashes close by, a port official said on Tuesday.
"We plan to move there soon, maybe in one or two weeks," Shoaib told Reuters by phone from Tobruk. "We need to speak to the army about the security situation."
Benghazi was where mass protests against Gaddafi erupted in 2011 and escalated into an armed revolt that toppled him.
Shoaib also said the House of Representatives was keen to resume talks sponsored by the United Nations to end Libya's division. In September, U.N. officials launched a first round in the southern city of Ghadames bringing together parliament and members from Misrata who had boycotted the sessions.
But little progress has emerged publicly despite visits by foreign envoys and even U.S. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Last week, U.N. Special Envoy Bernadino Leonwarned Libya was getting "very close to a point of no return."
"Nothing is going on but we are making internal arrangements to put together a delegation," Shoaib said. "We hope there will be talks soon."
The talks have not drawn in armed factions from Misrata or a rival force from the western city of Zintan that battled Misrata forces in Tripoli over the summer. Clashes have continued on the fringes of the capital on Libya's western Mediterranean shore.
In a petition signed by 70 lawmakers, parliament said the talks were the only way out of Libya's deepening crisis.
The assembly in Tobruk is supposed to have 200 members but only around 130 are present. Some factions such as the Muslim Brotherhood, who are aligned with the Misrata factions, have boycotted the House.
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