And huge policy fight with the bureaucrats saying, oh, we cant say economic aggression, but when you are reading the report you understand why. Watch book tv every weekend on cspan 2. Next, remarks by the libyan Prime Minister on the relations of his country and the u. S. He spoke to the John Hopkins School of advanced international studies. It is about an hour and 20 minutes. Welcome, mr. Chairman to the house of international studies. Im daniel seuer, i am pleased to welcome you to the Global Leader in the study and practice of international relations. Mr. Prime minister, i first saw libya in september of 2011 when i made my way to benghazi and tripoli. The early days of the revolution, and unguarded in your two most important cities. Despite the molecular violence, spirits were high after i returned to International Carter center. And shortly thereafter, libya democracy has changed and you will give us a glimpse of what happened behind the scenes and deepening our understanding of libya and the International Challenges during transitions of ongoing conflict. Your u. N. Backed government represents to in the best hope of recovery. As an architect, you are well suited to building not only libyas physical infrastructure, but also its governing institutions. This is a great calling and high importance to create resources to serve and protect the citizens. I am looking forward to the Progress Report on your efforts and your suggestions of what the International Community can do to help, but it also my responsibility to ask you all to silence your cell phones. It is a pleasure to have you here to speak, and afterwards, my fellow from the policy institute will take over and moderate the discussion. Mr. Prime minister, the floor is yours. Translator ladies and gentlemen, i am pleased and honored to meet you today at the Johns Hopkins university, this Historical Monument is considered one of the foremost forums of knowledge in the world. I offer my gratitude to this university for organizing this event and for their generous invitation and outstanding organization. My speech to you will be directed to the post conflict and managing the country in a way that guarantees no repeat of the conflict and transforms it from the conversation to the conversation of development before going into what we hope for, and we should speak about the reasons of the conflict which my country loves. Regarding the conflict, we believe there are two factors that concern this, and the other element has to do with the abandoning the libyans by the International Community and having to deal with this inheritance and the mistakes committed. Totalitarian regime before the revolution had limited rules, and no human right, and when they left the country, they left it without many institutions. For example, they were fearful of the military, and the fear of the military Organization Led to this dismemberment, and now it is nothing but militias and so they neglected the building of the infrastructure and erected their interest of revolt in other areas. There were projects such as the artificial river which is a network that brings water from the desert to the cities of the country. We hahave not been in the proce to assist the regime, but the political structure did not create any catalyst that can be built upon, and to that, libya went into chaos and a military revolt trying to bring back a totalitarian regime which is something the libyans will never accept. We go on to another element and the negative interference in the Political Affairs which led to the situation, and providing others with the means to transform it from a political conflict into a military conflict. Ladies and gentlemen, we have carried the responsibility based on a political agreement between all political factions in the country and we have reached an agreement after a twoyear long dialogue after the supervision of the United Nations which aimed to transform the country to transitional period into a democratic status. However, the parties to the agreement did not adhere to it and followed the route of maneuvering to try to avoid the outcomes and despite that, would it not have stopped short at reaching to all other parties in the Political Landscape to go beyond this agreement, and to expand the basis of participation without neglecting the work of running the country and bringing in a stability and confronting terrorism, and before everything providing the necessities of the citizens. And elevating the suffering. We have participated in a number of meetings and International Conferences looking for a solution for this crisis and we adhere to the outcome of the meetings and the latest of which where the conferences of paris palermo and other meetings, however, the other parties continued to hideaway from their responsibilities, and there was no International Posture or position against that. They took advantage of the advice or divided international position. And we tried to move the country beyond the political stalemate in a way that brings us together, and we were keen to be part of the National Conference under the auspices of the International Nations and we will invite the International Community it to, and the libyans depend on it greatly. On that basis the libyans place their hopes to reach for president ial and parliamentarian elections and however these hopes were participating in the attacks launched by the militias on april 4th before the International Meeting and during the visit of the secretarygeneral of the United Nations which destroyed any opportunity for a political solution. The purpose of the coup was to destroy any hopes of building a democracy and bringing the country back to the totalitarian military rule. Ladies and gentlemen, it was our duty to confront this attack which he called the war of jihad or the great victory. He believed that controlling tripoli is nothing but a short journey. And as part of hopeless propaganda campaign, he said that he is coming to fight terrorism, and ignoring at the same time that the forces of the National Government are the ones who liberated cert from isis as part of the Strategic Alliance that binds us to the United States and counter terrorism. And in addition, tripoli was a victim of terrorism when it was and became a target of targeting the headquarters of the 34iminiy of Foreign Affairs and the International Oil company, and the independent elections commission, and despite all of the challenges, the National Government is working in coordination with the United States to intercept and target all terrorist cells in libya up until today. The war criminal discovered that these claims cannot be believed, and so he sought another reason for his attack claiming his aim to equal distribution of wealth. And even though 65 of the countries budget is directed to the sellers, and 10 for ancillary support or subsidy, and these expenses were never to fall short for any reason in libya. Of course, these were good indicators and things that we are working on reforming. In addition, the government provides the funding necessary for basic services through the different sectors such as education, health and so on in these regions. Equally and fairly, the National Accord government is the government of the libyans and all libyans. Its members are members that i come from all of the parts of libya, and east, west, north and south. We did not forego our responsibility for any reason in libya. This is something that the war criminal tried to use for the waste of public funds that has structured and bringing and taking currency outside of the Governmental Organization and his attempts to sell libyan oil outside of the National Organization and the national oil company. That is why we demanded the formation of a Technical Commission under the supervision of the United Nations and other relevant united organizations to audit the work of the Libyan Central Bank and then by then, we believe that such a process is going to support such transparency and silence all of the claims of the war criminal and his other proxies. Ladies and gentlemen, the u. N. Security council and other countries demanded that the militias stop their attacking and go back to their old positions, however, he ignored that claim and continued his attack for six months where 3,000 libyans were killed and thousands injured and thousands others were displaced in addition to losses to infrastructure and public facilities and field hospitals and medical and the civilian airport available in the capital to transport travelers and the injured. These tragedies included many citizens and refugees who are the subject of attack, and we are still waiting for the response of the International Community to investigate this and to understand and appreciate the level of these great attacks that will be from the criminal. And these criminal actions are away from the war zones and the extra killings such as one of the leaders of his militias who conducts and who the International Criminal initiated a warrant for arrest of him, and then a number of individuals blindfolded in cameras, and this criminal is still in his position committing new violations. And the area of control in these areas and who is a Parliament Member for no reason other than demanding the attack on a tv program. The presence of this individual are full of all people of differing opinions, and they are indicators of corruptions, of corruption are clear, and we have asked for an International Audit and review of such violations. Ladies and gentlemen, the attack of the tripoli field objectives and that which led them to expand the attack of other cities which frightened the citizens and threatened the positions of many of them. We call for peace and harmony and we will not allow the politicization of the citizens of libya, and we will count ther attack and there were signs that the war would end as we see the signs is of victory of our forces, and this is why we are worried about the future. We are planning for it and the next stages where i have presented an initiative in last june as an entry point to end instability and bring in a transition period. This process will involve people who respect their promises and believe in democracy and a peaceful transfer of power. The International Community should not summarize a country in this Eastern Region and can represent political and philosophical and economic backgrounds to support the region and participate in the interNational Conference which i called for all of the parties and components to be present from all regions. And the democratic solution has no place for this to be called for a tiyranny and dictatorship and hands are full of blood. I proposed in the conference that we have an agreement for a roadmap, and agree on a Constitutional Foundation to conduct president ial and parliamentarian elections and for the United Nations and the International Supervision to see that the elections, and the United Nations and the International Community to provide resources for this election. We have call for decentralization and the ideal of all of the resources and include justice for all and the government, and we have proposed a National Reconciliation and also the reconciliation to be an outcome of this forum and to hold war criminals accountable. Ladies and gentlemen, the area of the constitution conducting the elections of the government and this is the latest stage of laying the foundation for the states. In addition, we are putting together a mechanism for transitional procedures to establish a modern state. In parallel, we are going to fix a number of issues considering a specific situation. And so the National Government started coordinating with the United Nations to put forward a system of the National Police and the Security Forces on professional standards, and we also put together a proposal to collect arms and store them and the program to merge fighters into the police and the fighting apparatus, and we have succeeded in including a number of these organizations and we put together a rehabizatilitatizati and these opinions in our opinion are for unity to build a unified Security Organization in the country. Ladies and gentlemen, in parallel with the security arrangements we also launched Economic Reform Program that aims to fix and remedy the fiscal and the monetary structure. The citizens felt that there is also a program with the stopping or the Exchange Rate which applies. This is the first step which will be followed with other steps agreed upon with the central bank as well as other financial and economic institutions. We look forward to a partnership with friendly countries which is the United States and through the investments and initiatives in the areas of oil, gas, energy, and the Financial Sector as well as the Service Sector and tourism sector. This framework yesterday, we met with a number of American Companies to find the Proper Foundation or proper landscape to prove in advance our work, and we signed the mou with the g. E. Company in the field of energy. Libya is a wealthy country when comparing the resources to a number of citizens and has elements of attraction based on its Natural Resources and geographic position, and the shores with 200 kilometers the libyans can raise the stature of their country, and so it is time under the umbrella of a democratic country to agree with the Cultural Diversity and love. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Thank you so much for your kind words and sharing your thoughts on what is happening in libya, a topic that most of us have been following in the news for years up and down. I will reserve the right to ask my own questions, but let me start off with questions from the audience. Anybody specific . Okay. Heads towards there and deborah and bill and professor. Can i start with deborah first, please. Any microphones . Thank you. Deborah allen from washington. If you have the proverbial one wish from the government of the United States, what is the one thing that this administration could do to help you advance what you have just said to development under a democratic umbrella, and one thing that you would ask . Translator microphone, please. I am the executive director of the libyan American Organization for human rights. Your excellency the prime minist minister, it is no secret that the attack on tripoli caused the death and injury of thousands of innocents, including my brother mohammad who was killed during his attempt to save civilians during the attack on tripoli. As a result, we members of the libyan diaspora and the members of the area family members who were lost in this indiscriminate attack, and my question to you is as Prime Minister of libya managed to bring lawsuits against any individuals who committed war crimes and first of which and whether you have brought that legally. I dont know if you have the translation. No, no it is okay. He already did. Okay. Dr. Bill. Thank you for coming today. I have a question that is relatively narrow, but not exposed. You outlined well the war crimes coming from the east and the economic mismanagement and those have also been well outlined here, but what people dont know much about is the attack on democracy. I mean the civil war started with an attack on parliament. Elections have been outlawed in the east and the military governors put in, and in that context of the attack on democracy, i was wondering if you could Say Something about, you know, how the east could get back towards democracy. Is it only to remove the guy at the top, or things that have to happen structurally for Eastern Libya to become part of the democratic effort that you would like to start up again in the east. Okay. Lets give him a chance to answer the questions, and then we will go for another round. Translator thank you for these interventions and questions. The question of her excellency deborah and of course, the relationship with the United States has nothing to show willingness when there is existing cooperation with the United States. However, if we wanted to cut the time short and brief everything that we hope for is to limit the political hurdle layers to build this country. What has happened over the short period that was not effective and firm dealing with these individuals. There is a lot of people who tried to put blocks in the way of the democratic country. The political disagreement in libya came to us on april 4th, and it cannot be forgotten, and so putting together meetings and International Conferences is no longer the stance that we need to limit and contain the people who laid blocks in the field of political progress. I hope that i have answered your question, miss deborah. Of course, as for abdel, my condolences for your brother and anybody who loses their life. Of course, we documented these violations, and we have presented them to the icc. And we in the National Accord government are serious for following up with any violations, and please, rest assured that the rights of the libyan libyans are of great interest to us, and we will continue to follow up on these concerns. Mr. Bill, i may disagree with you about violations in the east and the west, but it is not a matter of the east and the west. The violations are committed by particular individuals, and these crimes were committed by particular individuals, and indeed, a lot of violations. When we talked with the u. S. Side for example we talk about failu failures and the democratic country, and the civilian country, and nonmilitarized country, and this is the common values that we have between us. So, what happened with kidnapping a member of the parliament in this way means that there is silencing of the voices. And this is happening under the areas of the military control and many indicators as you said as a matter of elections. There are elected councils which were replaced by military councils and military rules. And that means lack of consideration for the values of the civil state, and so there are areas of the region in libya. Under this military movement of the project to bring back our civilian state. Can you hear me . I looked for you earlier to give you a shot at a question, but is there anything on your mind that you want to share . Well, might add this, with the National Dialogue in libya failed, why should your International Council succeed . Okay. One or two more questions. Your excellency and Johns Hopkins, thank you. Your excellency, mr. President , has to do with the post stage, and i hope that the sacrifices and the victories of the National Government will not only counter the attack on tripoli, but also the ability to stop that military project all over libya. We should look to the post after stage, and what is your view of the ability to neutralize the disagreements and the ability to bring together the forces of the government and outside of the military apparatus, and to bring together the National Project that would embrace those who believed on the nationalist state and who want to build the homeland and be the supporters of the former regime or were part of the other projects in the past outside the military project. Thank you. Translator that is a legitimate question. How can a National Forum succeed where some considered the political dialogue have failed, but lets discuss the reasons of political dialogue failure, because they did not adhere to the items of agreement, the members or the parties of the agreement did not adhere to the political agreement and instead of that, they started to maneuver and negotiate and to hinder the political agreement and now they are trying to completely abort it. However, our talk about how a National Forum can succeed when the political discourse failed is what i believe we should do. Perhaps this culture does not exist within some sectors of the libyan society, but we should bring this culture, because without dialogue amongst the libyans without them sitting together, the other alternative is to pick up weapons, and that is what is happening now. However, experience shows that there is no military solution in libya, and the solution is political, and so, we should try once, twice, three times until we find Common Ground that brings us together and there is a lot of this Common Grounds. So that we can do what we can to build our country. Perhaps, the same question is related to what dr. Hassan asked. The post conflict stage when i presented my initiative back in june, that was part of this stage. The conflict over power in libya is not going to be ended by elections it will only be ended by elections. The ballot box is the decider and not the weapons. If we succeed in making that happen, i think that we will have succeeded in allowing the libyan people to choose. And that answers your questions and indeed, a wide array of political and nonpolitical groups in libya that should stick to the results of this election if we really aim to build our country. I believe that the opportunity is there, and some parties try to distance that objective and make us feel that the environment is not suitable for elections and so on, but i believe that continuing this fruitless effort in addition to the negative interferences will not bring us out of this conflict. We have to put a deadline for elections that we go towards clearly that there is a role for the International Community to obligate all authorities to adhere to the results of the elections so that we can overcome these prior conflicts. Okay. Right here. Excuse me. He didnt want to give me the mic. Thank you very much for your intervention and for being here with us. I have just one question. Before the General Assembly, you have been traveling since the 4th of april in various capit capitol capitals and you met many heads of state and president s, and then you had this meeting, and so do you a feeling that something is changing in the international arena, that something of the actors who have been intermingling rightly or wrongly into the situation of libya are changing some positions, or do you believe that the polarization will continue and not allow for a solution. Thank you. Sir . I had a very similar question. Several countries are supporting general haftar and i wondered if you could specifically address why some in your region, if you could explain to us why each one of them is, and whether or not you have ongoing contacts with the governments to try to change their mind . Translator indeed. After the attack on april 4th, i was in a number of visits in europe, and i met with some of the heads of state and Prime Ministers. What happened or the position taken is that unfortunately some countries made the wrong callatica calculations that the insurgent will succeed in his attempt on april 4th, but however, now the countries have reviewed the calculations and realize that it is not achievable through this venture. This is the difference between the beginning of april and the meetings that i had back then and between what we have today in the positions of some countries that they reconsidered and realize that the solution is political, and that we have to bring back the political process. Of course, bringing back the political process, there is much to be said. What is the political process . Who are the partners . And for three years we were in a party to a impossible partner who had nothing but hidden animosity and objective to end the political route. The second question is indeed of supporting the other party, convinced them that they can achieve success, but unfortunately the illusions proved unachievable. We did not close the window of communication even with the countries that supported that and i said to my address to the General Assembly of france and emirates that they are offering him immediate platform direct so that they have direct and indirect support and support on ground as well as egypt, the neighbor egypt. So we did not stop any communication with any party or country, and we communicate with france. We have open channels with faith that the role is to open up the channels of communication and not close them. The objective is to convince the countries that the calculations were wrong, and so it will change their position to stop that funding, that support and that be it military, media, logistic or political to the other party who, which will not take us to any result through the political process. So communication with these countries continues. Okay. Lets start with you in the back. And okay. Then we will take yours. Translator peace be upon you. I have a question. I am a political activist and student at Howard University and washington, d. C. , being the Political Capital with its influences of the positionmakers, we have not seen influential channels of communication in d. C. By the National Government and the minister of Foreign Affairs or the embassy in d. C. , and it was not able to influence or come through with the necessary plans to communicate with the congress and that is condemned in tripoli, but on the other side, the war criminal who is not recognized managed to reach trump and have him cooperate directly. So what are the future efforts and steps that the National Government will take to establish Effective Communication channels that the suffering of the libyan citizens and the daily crimes being committed by the militias that should be held accountable. Translator i welcome you, and in fact, i did not want to take part, because our communication in tripoli and our conversations have been happening back there, however, there was a question that created a question within me. Of course, the war in libya was not just six months, but a fiveyear war. We do not forget the war on benghazi, the destruction of darna and the war that has been waged in the south and now in tripoli. Five years have passed. In tripoli, it is now six months that appear to have not be sufficient to convince the state of emirates to stop sending drones or Armored Vehicles or the other weapons and diplomacy did not convince egypt to stop sending and opening up their egyptian and libyan borders that are falling under no International Control or supervision, and the u. N. Only controls the high seas, but egyptian libya borders are open to bring in weapons and so on. So it seems that the diplomacy did not convince france to stop supporting either. Their keen interest to keep him in the Political Landscape and to have a future in it, and now our diplomacy also led to a new element in the equation. Dean wagner who came from russia, and we cannot say that san independent institution, because russia does not have that type of institution, and now wagner is killing people in tripoli and other parts of it. Is it not time for the government of you have to take positions, diplomatic positions towards these countries and to bring about clear complaints to the Security Council regarding such interventions. The emirates did not just interfere by offering a Media Conference and now they are offering direct contribution and unfortunately direct contribution to flee the war in tripoli and to enable the militias to continue to fight us. That is why we believe there should be a position, and how come there is no such position from the government the request Security Council to study such issues to, or to take a step to cut the ties with such countries to make them realize how dismayed we are because of the steps that we are receiving from our brothers in emirates and egypt and from our friend and friends in russia which has printed 30 billion and flooded the markets with currency and money to have to buy the conscience of people, and to finance his war on libya. This is my question now. This question is on the minds of many libyans, how come there is no firm stance and effective stance regarding that . Another question, and i will come back. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Prime minister. I find your civilized way of dealing with the issues in libya very honorable, and your ideas are based on the constitution and correct me if i am wrong, but you are still running on the 2011 constitution which in the pre preamble states that when there is a new constitution, that you will have a new preamble, and how crucial is this to providing the civilians with the inalienable rights and the right to protection. Thank you. Translator the first question regarding the role of the minister of Foreign Affairs to communicate our concerns are today we are in washington, d. C. , and talk about the issues with the United States. We will not defend the minister of the Foreign Affairs or the embassy, but we will expand our point of view. Some believe that the positions of countries change by changing the ambassadors. The relationships between the countries are greater than that. They are governed by ambitions and interest. It is more than one ambassador, and one adviser or one phone call. So, lets name things of properly. Our communication with the u. S. Government never stopped. Our embassy is doing a lot of effort, and perhaps we did not have a phone call with president trump, but there was good communication, and we should not forget that the matter is not that the advisers have to communicate with the u. S. Government, because there are other countries who are lobbying with are companies that are lobbying with the u. S. Government. And so when we say let there be lets make these efforts cumulative and support our embassy and our foreign we should not attack each other in this critical stage. We need constructive criticism. However, its things are not as simple as think that a simple step may change a countrys position 180 degrees. It requires changing of opponents of view. Some countries have certain interests. Some countries use libya for reasons other than libya for other purposes and negotiations with other countries. So libya is not but a part of an International Game in such equations. As far as for brother ibrahim. I appreciate that it did not start six month ago. What hes done over the past period in different parts and latest of which is trip that the south is suffering. And war crimes and attacking targeting of civilians. Of course, there are several theories of this. Some say submit a complaint. Cut your relationships with egypt, emirates, france and moscow. And thats something you should do. There is another theory that says, no. The libyan state now cannot take such a position. We should leave the doors open for communication. Maybe we can neutralize some of these positions and indeed some countries, their position today is different from other position on april 4th so we need a long haul policy. We are denouncing the positions of these countries clearly. There is no need to discredit the National Accord government. To the contrary. Everything we do international is clear because people are dying, people are getting displaced. People are getting hurt. And thats what we are showing others. There are people who are fighting and defending and facing and military project. So i would like to reassure you that things are not rosy. Indeed. But we are not at war situation. We are using all the tools available. We need to support each other. Thank god we have many libyans in many forums. We have libyans of stature in washington. We need their efforts. We need to communicate with them. We need to consolidate our efforts with our embassy, with the minister of Foreign Affairs, with our government be it in washington or other states have. We can reach the centers of position making and how we can do that in a way that enables us to reach the objective we want. So and hopefully we can have a coordination and meeting in our embassy that of the ambassador to show this effort. Yes. Translator of course. So far we are working with the temporary constitution. However, there is a constitutional project that was finalized by the Constitution Commission and they turned for referendum. Of course, did not happen and that route is blocked for many reasons. Some claim that this constitution is incomplete and others say that it was controlled by one particular political faction. And was directed in a certain way and so i had several meetings with some of the members of the Constitutional Committee that this is a first stage of democracy that we are talking about. Give people the opportunity to express their opinion in the constitution. We should not prevent the libyan people from aoffering their opinion. Theres a mechanism for reviewing the constitution again so there are many opinion that is we presented before that we maybe we can exclude some of the items that are subject of disagreement. And use some of the other articles that other articles so we can go beyond this stage and we can depend on it as a Constitutional Foundation to conduct president ial and parliamentiarian constitution. It can be amended in five years, it can be changed. I believe and i still think that a referendum is an important step, even though some criticize the that draft constitution and but they havent even read it but they just listen. Its a brotherhood constitution. Its not a good constitution. And so on. So we need to establish a Democratic Path and i think a referendum over a constitution is very important. Or the National Forum and agree on National Basis so that we can execute and implement the elections. Okay. We have you start first. And then one from you and and then you. Translator welcome, president sarraj. I have one very specific question. The people that representative the offensive today, they offer refer to the 27th of february. The meeting in abu dhabi and they say that you at some stage authorized the entry in tripoli, then went back home and change your mind. I would like to have your version of what actually happened. Thank you. Translator mr. President , Everybody Knows that the beginning of the campaign on tripoli was under the isis and all the story and after things became clear to everyone now there is another boogieman being the distribution of the wealth. We know that the National Budget under the National Accord government is distributed for the entire state of libya. Moreover, the minister of finance former minister of finance and the current minister of finance are on accord, members are were chosen by consensus and they dont come from the western part. Please clarify that to the audience and take in consideration when explaining it to other audience. Translator my name is ahkmed. For asking a question. Concentrate on the topics at hand that we are dealing with washington, not domestic policy issues in libya. So please address your questions mainly to the international relations. Translator from the libyan american alliance. Mr. President , thank you for being with us. We are certain that the militarization project in libya is in the final stages. My question has to do with does the National Accord government has a clear vision on how to deal with this Massive Force thats attacking the national that is defending the capital. Is there a way to merge and consolidate these forces . Is there initiative with the u. S. To deal with this . Thank you. Translator and the first question has to do with abu dhabi meeting. Of course, abu dhabi meeting was the sixth meeting that brought me together with hafta. We met before that in paris and abu dhabi and so on. Of course, this marketing or promotion of hafta supporters, this meeting was attended better for an hour and a half and i think the party that arranged this steered that meeting in their interest. I dont think this meeting was lost on them. It was a very clear meeting in that the ironic thing and what happened was the opposite. I talked to them about the danger of taking a military step against tripoli and i told him that he is living in an illusion that there is a disagreement between the forces in the western side. These forces, despite their disagreements, will unify and will face your forces if you move toward tripoli. This was a clear message to him. And we had a formal conversation on the 25th or 26th of march. I called him. Because there were arrangements for another meeting where we would complete what we started in abu dhabi. And it was agreed that we will meet in the south and i insisted on meeting in libya, within libya. There was disagreement. The meeting or where. I said. I insisted on meeting on with regardless of the details. There was agreement on the second meeting after the 27th of february meeting. However, we had there was concern about holding the National Forum on april 14th. And we agreed to meet before that. And we set the date of april 10th preliminary. What happened later on is that on the 4th of april he moved, deployed his forces to destroy the political path incomplete. And so, there was no agreement and then we change of position. No. My message to him was very clear, not just in abu dhabi. Even in other meetings. That the mail teilitary step to tripoli is nothing but a failing adventure and thats exactly what happened. Of course, the second question is that he is trying to market the theories and for this attack. A regression. Number one, he claims that its a war. Again, its tourism. Thats what i mentioned in my first speech. I dont think that anybody can discredit a National Accord government war on tourism. The other thing has to do with the distribution of fortune. Even the concept, the terminology is not correct. If we want to use a proper terminology we should say ideal distribution or ideal usage and as we said the 75 of it, 65 is salary, 10 subsidy for energy. The rest is spent on education, health, infrastructure, social services and so on. What portion of wemt aalth are talking about distributing . All libyans receiving what theyre doing in this fortune and in these revenues. The other reason thats right to market is that hes fighting militias and may take us to answer the question by the gentleman. Yes, we started indeed these steps. We are not waiting for this war to end to take steps. We started and were security arrangements and we took some serious steps when we entered tripoli. There were 100 armed formations. Now were talking about four or five of them in tripoli. So this is something that weve started indeed and we are not waiting to until the war is over. And the proof to that is that before april 4th and before the visit, hes he knows this situation and return of 40 Diplomatic Missions to tripoli are is an indicator of the improvement in the security situation in tripoli. However, what happened is that on the 4th of april and that attack destroyed many of the efforts, security, economic, political. And we are back to a square where all the Security Forces, be them regular or paramilitary, are joined to defend the capital, divide our people and our families. So i would like to reassure you that we indeed took practical steps and we have cooperation with the u. S. Institutions and we have agreement with them on how to organize the Security Landscape and how to build the security and institution because there was not one in the east or the west. That is the painful truth. Thank you. Good morning, mr. President. That you are for joining us today. Im lydia jeffs. In your address earlier you mentioned the success of Economic Reforms enacted prior to the outbreak of hostilities this april. Could you tell us more about your administrations plans to diversify and modernize the economy of libya and also to reunify economic institutions . Thank you. Anybody else . Ill go get some students. Yes, please. Hello, mr. Prime minister. Thank you for coming to speak with us this morning. A couple of months ago haftars forces landed an operation that killed that 55 people. Since then, the United Nations has kind of asked the tripoli government to close the detention facilities, many of which have suffered human rights abuses according to news reports. Im wondering since then, what has the government done to improve the conditions or help Asylum Seekers displaced by cob fli conflict. Anybody from in the back . Thank you. My name is sam, a secondyear student here. How Going Forward can you ensure that lib whys going to be inclusive, not only with regard to gender, persons with disabilities, but also the ethnic minorities, specifically in the south . Translator first question has to do with Economic Reforms and we said that we indeed last september took concrete steps towards economic reform. And we applied fees for on sale of foreign currencies and that enabled us to control the black market or the quasi market. That led to reducing the prices of basic needs and that the so there will be other steps in the future to deal with Energy Subsidies so its a series of steps and actions, monetary and fiscal, so that we can deal with the deformities in the Economic Situation. Of course, some of it have to do with the laws and regulations. Unfortunately, the logistics may not be able to deal with such laws but anything to do with actions or positions of the executive we are moving in the correction effectively to reach a good approach to remedy the Economic Situation. Of course, when we talk about the Economic Situation we cannot separate it from the political situation or the security situation. These are three phases of the same currency. We need stability so that this reform would be fruitful. So if we talk at economic reform when a part of the country is printing currency outside the structure of the central bank we cannot talk about reform, reform if we cant control the price of fuel in some areas. And so theyre all connected to reach a unified economic structure to us to apply these sort of reforms. Regarding the illegal immigration and the bombing of the Refugee Center of the parliament house, that was true crime and we talked about this with our european neighbors. Libya is a victim of this issue because this also concerns us. The migration by hundreds of thousands and just to make things clearer to the audience, there are about 600,000 to 800,000 Illegal Immigrants on libyan land. Refugee centers, thats only house about 10,000 of them. So there is no comparison between the real number of those on libyan land and those in the Refugee Centers and indeed we started to close the centers because theyre a burden to us right now. Its nothing but criticism and talk about cviolations and so o. In the meantime, many of the countries that talk about immigration do not carry the responsibilities and some of them are European Countries. They should take the responsibility instead of criticizing libya under the current Economic Situations, handling 800 immigrants and under 10 in the center. Some European Countries would not receive a single migrant. And criticize the libyan state with 800,000 migrants so its a strange approach. Illogical approach. So there are some dimensions to the issue. Economic, humane. So regardless of the standards or the criteria we cannot accept the migration of the youth. Half would die in the desert and the other half would die in the sea. The only solution is to develop the source countries so that the youth can support and help develop their own countries instead of being wasted in the desert and killed and sea. Many of the networks unfortunately help trafficking of people and many of these exist in europe and latin america and other parts of the world. And indeed over the last period five or six individuals were listed of this traffickers. And so, were despite the limitations on our resources the coast guard save thousands in the sea. And they communicate to acquire the necessary ships that enabled them to be in the water. So you cannot ask the coast guard to play the role if you have weapons and cargo. Do not allow them to acquire the necessary pieces. The last issue has to do with minorities in the south. What was the beginning of this . Of course, for us, the issue of excludeing any party in libya we are completely against it. From the south or otherwise, theyre all libyans. They should get whats rightfully theirs to build libya, to the right in education and health and suppressing their opinion and political participation. This is a right guaranteed by the future constitution. Okay. One last question from me. I think he has to leave. I have to stick to that, to the schedule. But i delayed my own sort of comments. One question i would like to ask mr. Sarraj is that hes been talking and i understand the reasons for it that he will not sit down with haftar. Haftar is not part of a solution which is fully justified in my mind. The question i have is that haftar at the end of the day works for the parliament in libya. He is the one, the parliament is the one that appointed him. Sala is technically at least legally considered to be the head of the whats called the army. Knows a lot of these people. So my question is, and the parliament at the end of the day is a part of the agreement and part of the institutions recognized internationally. Is there any possibility that your government will be willing to negotiate with the parliament on a political level and leave, for example, any of the military disengagement left between the heads of the military that are loyal to the gna an enthen haftar on the other side but thats separate from the political process that the gna recognize at least a parliament as a counter political weight to the situation. Translator this is a good question. Of course, we are not talking about the reasons of we are not talking again about the reasons why we wouldnt sit with this individual again because after three years we got nothing but a back stab and attack on tripoli. For us, of course, the house of representatives is one of the signees to the political agreement and as well as the president ial council so there is a mechanism to deal with any changes in the political framework. There is a mechanism. If we talk about the political agreement as the ground we all stand on, there are clear mechanisms. Even these positions are now vacant according to the political agreement so talking with the members of parliament or members of council, state council, did not stop. I have continuous meetings with them and we had a number of consult tative meetings with the Parliament Members and state council, women, youth, leaders of actions and these are all consultative meetings to put a unified vision or a National Project to the problem of house of representatives is theres one in tripoli and one in tolbrok and should be solved by the house of representatives. Thank you, mr. Prime minister, very much. Its been a great session and its great to share your thoughts with libya. Thank you all for being here. There is apparently a bigger audience not allowed in on a waiting list and then closed the doors and i get Text Messages from everybody but i hope they watch it on youtube where it was very broadcast and stream live. Translator one more time, im highly pleased to be in this Great Institution amongst the wonderful audience and i hope i have answered clearly and candidly to the questions and peoples minds but certainly the situation in libya requires more than one meeting so that we can find Common Grounds and common understanding of whats happening and as i said in the outset we are looking for common principles, common values. We call for the democratic country, a secular state and thats what were looking for via elections. Thank you very much. One last note, please. Please stay seated until the Prime Minister leaves and then we can yeah, yeah. Come up. Everybody wants to see him. Today at 6 00 p. M. Eastern, live coverage of Hillary Clinton and her daughter chelsea talking about their new book, the book of gutsy women. Watch our live coverage from washington, d. C. , today at 6 00 p. M. Eastern on book tv on cspan2. Weeknight this is week featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight a look at world war ii and the liberation of paris in 1944 by u. S. And french troops. That all starts at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Saturday at 2 30 p. M. Eastern on American History tv, winston lord author of kissinger on kissinger on the relationship with the secretary of state henry kissinger. Nixon had read kissingers books. Nick exx nixon wanted to dominate Foreign Policy and he knew he needed a very able, thoughtful National Security adviser. And at 10 00 little to do except work and light steam seemed rugged, indeed. Here in such a setting they prepared to search for oil. On reel america, the 1948 film desert venture on the origins of the Saudi Arabian oil industry and 6 00 p. M. , preview the votes for women exhibit at the Smithsonians National portrait gallery. Hall was ahead of her time. She warted a business as a wall street banker with her sister. She advocated for free love which means sex outside of march. At 6 30 p. M. Eastern, an author discusses democracy and truth,. No one person, sector or king, priest, National Research body, specific cast would get to call all the shots. Explore our nations past on American History tv every weekend on cspan3. Our cspan campaign 2020 bus team is traveling across the country visiting key battleground states in the 2020 president ial race. Asking voters what issues they want president ial candidates to address during the campaign. And congress in washington should do more to address the Climate Crisis because defense spending or any other partisan divide will not matter if we dont have a planet to live on. And i think a really important issue that washington needs to address is lgbtq rights and protecting individuals from discrimination. Theyre not protected under the constitution coming to say i want a job and im a bisexual woman. Someone can fire me for being gay. The idea of u. S. Political system overall is the development of new technologies and having some kind of public input on these. These are, yeah, technologies coming out about, say, things like human gene editing which to some people is very scary or develop offal go rhythms on the internet and cue rate the information we see. Big developments that theres not a Clear Scientific consensus on what we ought to do so i think that as a political system there is a certain obligation to have some kind of conversation about these big issues and decide collectively what we ought to be doing as a society. I think we have a lot of issues at the federal level right now but one that we hear about a lot with my constitutes is gun safety and its a big issue. People are very interested in stronger background checks and i think thats very important and no one is interested in taking away any guns. We just want to make sure that they do not get in the hands of the wrong people. I think we need stronger restrictions on automatic weapons because theyre not a sporting gun. They have one purpose and that is to kill so i think we need to pay strong attention to that issue. Voices from the campaign trail part of cspan battleground states tour. Coming up next, a hearing on the relationship between ecigte