Angry protesters block Tobruk’s HoR building, disallow meeting
Dozens of protesters have briefly blocked the gates of the parliament based in the country’s east, preventing a crucial session, lawmakers said on Monday, before negotiations ended the standoff.
The house was to convene for the first time since the new U.N. envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, assumed his post.
Salame has proposed new ideas to break the political stalemate by amending the country’s peace deal. Libya is split into competing governments and two parliaments and an array of rival militias.
Lawmaker Fawzia Abu-Ghalia said she flew in from Tripoli for the session in the eastern city of Tobruk but added that she and other lawmakers “found the parliament closed” by protesters, mostly young men demanding their salaries.
Later on the day, Parliament Spokesman Abdullah Ablahig told The Associated Press that negotiations succeeded in ending the protests and the session will be held tonight. He also said that a large number of the parliament’s 200 members have arrived over the past days.
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