The episode of “Al-Bilad” program discussed Saturday the possibility of the success of the talks of the parliamentary committee formed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives on the constitutional basis, and how to confront the bad spread of Coronavirus in Libya? Where does the Libyan political dialogue forum stand?
Italian Initiative
Italian journalist Massimiliano Poccolini from Decode 39 explained that Italy wants to play a mediating role in Libya, pointing out that Libya’s unity and stability is at the heart of the Italian authorities’ concern; therefore, everyone wishes that the delegations representing the House of Representatives and the High Council of State to agree on the constitutional basis and to hold to elections on December 24.
Poccolini said that the Italian government supports the parliamentary and presidential elections in Libya. He hoped that there would be no obstacles to delaying the elections, after the failure of the Dialogue Committee in Geneva. The Italian government acts as a mediator between all the different parties.
Who are the political figures who will be present in Rome to discuss the constitutional basis? “We don’t have names yet. Because of the strict confidentiality about the initiative. What I know is that there are representatives of the parliament and the state.” He answered.
Poccolini believes that there is a great success rate for Italy in playing the role of mediator to reach the Libyan elections, but if this initiative fails, this is due to the Libyan parties rejecting the elections.
Immigration File
Poccolini indicated that in the past, there was a clear rivalry between France and Italy over the Libyan file, but for six months, they have been writing in several media outlets that this rapprochement between France and Italy is narrow because it was from the intelligence side only. Now there is a new page of understanding between France and Libya.
Poccolini stressed that there is no qualitative change on the part of the Italian government towards the Libyan file, because Italy supports all of Libya and is trying to open the lines of dialogue with the East and the West.
He said that there are some Libyan political parties that do not want to fund the Libyan Coast Guard, and at the same time, the Italian government continues to support the Libyan Coast Guard technically and logistically, and Italy’s position is clear regarding the presence of mercenaries and foreign forces in Libya, which is the need to work to remove them.
At the conclusion of the interview, Poccolini said that the website Decode 39 is a new news site, and it can be considered as Italy’s window on the Arab and English world.
LPDF Failed
On the other hand, political researcher Sanusi Ismail said: “When the LPDF failed to reach consensus on the constitutional base in its sessions over the five days in Geneva, it faced a real crisis, and a major failure that was not in the country’s interest.”
Ismail believes that the opportunity for the political dialogue forum still exists to achieve consensus and meet again for the future of the country. He noted that there is consensus on the constitutional basis, with the exception of the conditions for candidacy, which caused a problem.
Ismail wishes for the success of the upcoming elections by virtue of necessity, and whoever dreams of delaying does not guarantee what the situation will be like in the future, which will become worse than now.
He expected that Libya would go to parliamentary and presidential elections, calling to take advantage of the historical circumstance.
Coronavirus Spread
Chest disease specialist Dr. Hashem Balkhair said: “The epidemiological situation inside Libya is bad and the virus is going to spread as the problem is not only in positive cases, but in the spread among cities.
He continued: “The increased rate of the virus in a number of regions such as Tripoli, Misurata, Al-Jameel, Regdalin, Bani Walid, Zliten, Gharyan, Zuwara, and Al-Zawiya by 270%, the growth rate in the south is 480%, and the eastern region is 50%, according to UNICEF statistics indicates that the Delta variant is present in Libya.”
He also explained that if there was a clear strategy from the state to manage the Coronavirus file, we would have seen its results on the ground, saying there’s a need to separate cities to reduce the rapid spread of the disease.
