Cairo hosted on Monday meetings with Libyan officials, including parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh. The UN Special Envoy to Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, also met Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian Foreign Minister.
Egypt reiterated its demand for the withdrawal of mercenaries and foreign forces from Libya.
Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit met with Saleh to discuss challenges facing the Libyan political process and solutions to the ongoing crisis.
After the meeting, Saleh said holding Libyan elections required several measures, but hoped the Constitutional Committee would complete its tasks soon. He also voiced optimism towards the Committee finding consensus on sovereign institutions.
Saleh said the executive authority represented in the government of Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah had been tasked with specific duties to complete within a deadline, but it failed.
He called on the UN envoy, Bathily, to invite the Constitutional Base Committee, formed by the parliament and the High Council of State, to meet.
The speaker also stressed that the absence of a UN envoy during the recent period, after the resignation of Stephanie Williams, hindered the completion of the constitutional foundation because the meeting of the committee must be held under the auspices of the UN.
A new round of negotiations on the “constitutional track” between Saleh and the head of the High Council of State, Khaled al-Mishri, will start in Cairo with the presence of Bathily, sources reported.
Saleh and Mishri did not announce in advance that either of them would meet in Cairo.
However, council members talked about a meeting aimed at completing the discussion on unifying the executive authority, filling sovereign positions, and providing a constitutional basis for postponed presidential and parliamentary elections.
Shoukry stressed “the importance of the UN role in supporting the political and constitutional processes, legal frameworks and encouraging Libyan dialogue.”
The FM added that the implementation of standing agreements and legal mandates requires first the application of UN and international decisions regarding the withdrawal all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya.
The pullout, according to Shoukry, needs to be complete within a certain timeline.
