Lawmakers based in areas of eastern Libya controlled by Libyan National Army (LNA) commander Khalifa Haftar said on Monday they would not participate for now in peace talks with politicians allied to the Government of National Accord (GNA).
The eastern politicians said the United Nations, which is brokering the talks in Geneva, had not approved all the members of their proposed delegation.
The United Nations had planned to bring together lawmakers from both sides of Libya’s conflict on Wednesday to end the fighting over Tripoli as part of a dialogue encompassing military, political and economic strands, reported Reuters.
GNA chief Fayez al-Sarraj meanwhile described Haftar as a “war criminal” and demanded that he withdraw his forces threatening the capital.
“Children have lost their right to education due to the shelling and the closure of schools because of the attacker and those who fund the attacker and provide weapons, these must be held accountable,” Sarraj said at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The GNA, which nearly walked out of the Geneva talks last week, blamed Haftar’s forces for shelling Tripoli’s port shortly after the negotiations got underway.
Senior military figures on both sides on Sunday agreed to submit a draft ceasefire agreement to their leaderships before meeting again next month, the UN Libya mission, UNSMIL, said in a statement.
The eastern lawmakers refused to take part in Wednesday’s talks as UNSMIL had approved only eight of their 13 delegates, Ahmaida Erouhma, head of the Geneva committee at the eastern parliament, told reporters in the eastern city of Benghazi.
UNSMIL spokesman Jean El Alam said the talks would go ahead as scheduled but declined to comment specifically on the participation of either side.
“Many participants have already arrived in Geneva and we hope all invited participants follow suit,” he said.
The two sides have so far been seated in separate rooms, with UN envoy Ghassan Salame shuttling between them.
