The dialogue team of the General National Congress has left Tripoli heading to New York to participate in the political dialogue round there amid disagreement between GNC members over the latest draft.

 The team arrived first in Skhirat, Morocco, on Wednesday to prepare for the trip to New York as requested by the UNSMIL, which decided to hold this round in the UN headquarters in New York.

In Tobruk, the Women Bloc in the dissolved parliament announced that it would not take part in authorizing any political agreement if it was not modified according to what was included in the draft signed on July 12 by the parliament.

The bloc added in a statement that the latest UNSMIL draft goes at odds with the principles that the parliament has held on to since the start of the dialogue rounds, and goes against what was included in the fourth draft that was initialled in Skhirat, Morocco.

In addition, Tobruk Parliament member, Younis Fannoush has also criticized the dialogue rounds saying that the agreement, said to be signed in New York, will not account for the parliament and will not be legitimate.

GNC's take on the latest draft agreement

Division within the GNC over the latest draft agreement is growing. While many go in favour of signing the draft, many others remained wary.

Member of the Legislation Committee of GNC, Mahmoud Salama, said the latest political draft agreement includes many problematic points in both the draft’s main text and the appendixes,

Salama clarified, as he spoke to Press Solidarity, that the appendix (No.3) that is related to the fundamental rules for the work of the State Council does not achieve balance among parties, as the State Council itself has no right to veto any resolutions.

“The function of the State Council is only an advisory one and there are no guarantees that allow it to stop any decisions made by the other party.” He questioned.

Salama went on to say that the Legislation Committee calls for balance in the draft to give both parties the ability to inhibit the decisions made by any party if they were not agreed upon without having to use power or force.

He pointed out that balance can be achieved by creating two chambers and making them two parallel authoritative and legitimate powers, which was not included in the appendixes of the State Council main rules.

“The appendix of the organizing principles for the administration of the Libyan financial policy and foreign assets implies perilous meanings and an intervention in the government’s performance.” Salama continued.

He also said that the draft agreement allows international parties to intervene which makes it an external rather than internal solution to the crisis, violating UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution on Libya dialogue, which stressed that the solution must be internal and domestic.

He underscored that the draft’s points show the UNSMIL’s intervention and violation of the UNSC and Libya’s sovereignty.

Another GNC member, Abdul-Wahhab Al-Qayed admitted that there is a controversial dispute within the GNC regarding dialogue results guarantees. He pointed out that the GNC wants real guarantees to help achieve balanced results out of the dialogue that allows a legislative balance between the state council and the parliament.

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