After the latest push to secure a vote collapsed amid
recriminations, a group of pro-GNA lawmakers, who say they number just
over 100, a majority, issued a statement backing the unity government
late on Thursday.
The
State Council, part of a UN brokered political agreement, holds a
meeting to elect their Head of Council in Tripoli, Libya, April 6, 2016.
Libya's
internationally recognised parliament, which was forced out of the
capital by factional violence, failed to vote for a unity government
this week, but a majority of members restated their support and urged it
to start work.
The parliament's approval is a
vital part of a U.N.-backed plan to reconcile the administration set up
by the recognised parliament in Libya's far east with an alliance that
took over Tripoli in 2014 and declared its own government and assembly.
As Prime Minister Fayez Seraj
starts to set up government in a capital still dominated by various
armed brigades, the eastern parliament has yet to say it will take part,
with uncertainties over future control of the military a major concern.
After
the latest push to secure a vote collapsed amid recriminations, a group
of pro-GNA lawmakers, who say they number just over 100, a majority,
issued a statement backing the unity government late on Thursday.
They urged it to swear an oath in front of the parliament by the end of next week in a location to be determined.
The
West sees the Government of National Accord (GNA), formed under a deal
agreed in December, as the best chance to end political turmoil since
the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 that led to a rise in factional fighting and Islamist militancy, and are urging the eastern parliament to agree.
But
politicians close to Libya's eastern armed forces and its powerful
commander, Khalifa Haftar, have blocked a vote, saying they want to
protect the military's future role.
Haftar's
forces have made significant gains in the eastern city of Benghazi,
where they launched a campaign against Islamist groups and other
opponents two years ago.
In their statement, the
pro-GNA members of the eastern House of Representatives renewed a call
to amend the U.N.-mediated deal, cancelling a clause that would transfer
military appointments to the new administration.
The GNA leadership and the United Nations
have urged the eastern parliament to adopt the deal in its entirety.
Under the plan, the eastern parliament would share lawmaking duties with
a second chamber comprising of members of the rival parliament that was
set up in its absence.
U.N. envoy Martin Kobler, who was in the east earlier this week to lobby members of parliament, expressed his "profound disappointment" at the failure to vote, saying in a statement:
"I
find it regrettable that yet again a clear majority of members of the
House of Representatives are denied the opportunity to exercise their
intrinsic democratic right as elected representatives of the Libyan
people."
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