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TRIPOLI, Nov. 17-- Libya's eastern-based House of Representatives (parliament) announced Saturday that the UN special envoy for Libya does not object to replacing the current Tripoli-based Presidential Council of the Government of National Accord. During the recent international conference on the Libyan crisis held in Italy's Palermo, Speaker of Libya's parliament, Agila Saleh, and UN Special Envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame, had a sideline meeting. According to the speaker's media advisor, Salame expressed no objection on any possible joint decision made by the parliament and the Higher Council of State to replace the Presidential Council. The Presidential Council has been appointed based on a UN-sponsored political agreement signed by the Libyan parties later in 2017 in order to end the country's political crisis. However, the country remains politically divided between authorities in the east and the west, both competing for legitimacy. In October, both of the parliament and the Higher Council of State announced that they agreed on forming a new Presidential Council consisting of a president and two deputies, instead of the current one which has a president and eight deputies. Libya has been struggling to make a democratic transition amid insecurity and chaos, ever since the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011. | 
