Libya Parliament 'Suspends' Participation in Talks

Libya's internationally recognized parliament on Monday suspended its participation in U.N.-brokered talks on the future of the war-wracked North African state, officials said.

"The chamber of representatives today voted in favour of suspending its participation in the dialogue," with a new round due to open in Morocco on Thursday, MP Issa al-Aribi announced on Facebook.

He did not elaborate but both the LANA state news agency and parliament's own Facebook page confirmed the information.

The parliament said it would issue a statement giving the reasons for the decision which came "after last Friday's terrorist attacks in al-Qoba which killed or wounded dozens of people."

The Islamic State jihadist group said it was behind suicide car bombings that the health ministry said killed 40 people, including six Egyptians, in the eastern town.

Another parliamentarian, on condition of anonymity, said the decision to pull out of talks was taken over fears that the international community would exert pressure to include Islamists in a future unity government.

U.N. envoy Bernardino Leon told the Security Council last Wednesday that the only cure for Libya's trauma was political.

But the international community faces a daunting task to find a political solution to the lawless nation's political and military crisis.

Libya is awash with weapons and rival militias are battling for control of its cities and oil wealth.

It has two rival governments and parliaments, those recognized by the international community sitting in the east of the country and the other with ties to Islamists in the capital, Tripoli.

Since launching efforts at dialogue in September, Leon has been unable to bring together leading players from the rival camps.

The United Nations had invited the elected parliament and its Tripoli rival, the Islamist-dominated General National Congress, to the new round of talks in Morocco.

On February 11, Leon held separate indirect talks with officials from both sides in the southern Libyan oasis town of Ghadames -- the first between the two bodies since a national dialogue was launched last September.

The U.N. envoy called those talks "positive and constructive," despite not managing to sit the rivals round the same table.

Libya plunged into chaos after the 2011 revolution that toppled and killed Moammar Gadhafi, with heavily armed rival militias that had fought the longtime dictator's forces rising to prominence.