Associated Press errors in article on Libya

I was browsing news about Libya when I discovered an article claiming that the Libyan PM complained that the UN was attempting to impose an unworkable agreement on the various competing factions that would never be accepted by parliament.

I was astonished in that the LIbyan PM, or at least PM designate is Faiez Serraj. I found it remarkable that he should be saying that the Libyan Political Agreement was unworkable and that the UN was imposing it on parliament. The mystery was solved when I read further and found out that Libya's PM is Abdullah al-Thinni the head of the mostly unrecognized Tobruk-based government, associated with the House of Representatives (HoR).

Here is what the article in ABC news, from AP and attributed to Maggie Michael says to start off:

Libya's prime minister said Tuesday that the United Nations is trying to impose an unworkable agreement on the country's various factions that is "screwing up" the political process and will never be accepted by parliament.

It is the Government of National Accord, not the Al-Thinni government that is recognized by the UN and internationally as the one Libyan government:The Government of National Accord, (Arabic: ‎‎حكومة الوفاق الوطني), is an interim government for Libya that was formed under the terms of the Libyan Political Agreement which was signed on 17 December 2015.[1] The agreement has been unanimously endorsed by the United Nations Security Council which has welcomed the formation of a Presidency Council for Libya and recognized that the Government of National Accord is the sole legitimate government of Libya.At the very least it should have been made clear from the first that the mostly unrecognized government of Al-Thinni associated with the HoR was being referred to.

Even Jonathan Winer, U.S. special envoy, picked up on the issue : "AP might consider rewriting its lead, check its dates for when al-Thinni was last #Libya PM. https://goo.gl/re8xaO " Of course Al-Thinni still is the PM of the rival HoR government. The problem is that only those who do not recognize the GNA would call it the Libyan government.

The ABC news article goes on: Abdullah al-Thinni is the head of a weak, interim government based in eastern Libya that answers to its internationally recognized parliament. In Tripoli, the capital, his rival Fayez Serraj runs a U.N.-brokered presidency council and a designated government, which has failed to win parliament's endorsement.What is this about the HoR being an international parliament? Why is there no explanation or account of the Libya Political Agreement (LPA) signed in Skhirat on December 17 last year? The HoR is recognized only as the body whose function it is to vote confidence in the GNA and amend the Constitutional Declaration of 2011. It then becomes the legislature of the GNA. The Libyan government is the GNA and has no legislature to be recognized as yet. Once the LPA was agreed to and the GNA accepted by the UN and others, the interim government became the GNA not the HoR. In fact the HoR mandate ran out in October last year and was not legally extended.

The article quotes Al-Thinni as saying:"The presidency council wants to run the state without a parliament approval ... would you accept such a farce in Europe? The West is dictating a deal... Are we a testing ground for the West?"The article fails to note that Kobler went to great length to suggest that an HoR majority had actually approved the GNA in a letter and he convened Libya Dialogue members to give him the green light to move to Tripoli. Beyond that he has had the HoR convene numerous times to try and pass the vote of confidence with either no quorum or disruption of the meetings.

Al Thinni is reported as saying that the UN has a new initiative in the works "in which a unity government would shepherd the country towards presidential elections. The article notes that this had not been confirmed..Much of the rest of the article is accurate enough and even managed to mention the role of Khalifa Haftar. The mention of a new UN proposal is interesting in that Kobler recently suggested in a tweet that he would have a new proposal after Eid on Wednesday: "Invited for Libyan political dialogue meeting after eid to discuss next steps on basis of the #LPA. Eid Mubarak to all!! "