The UN envoy to Libya, Martin Kobler, had previously threatened some MPs with international sanctions in his first meeting with the parliament’s delegates in the UN-backed dialogue, Saleh Ifheima, a member of Tobruk Parliament has disclosed.

Speaking to Egypt-based Albawabh News, Ifheima said that in his first meeting with Kobler in Tunisia, three days after he assumed his post, Kobler hinted at possible international sanctions on Tobruk MPs if they hindered the political dialogue and the accord government.

“I told Kobler that the international community has no right to impose sanctions on the MPs who were democratically elected by the Libyan people, and when I asked him about the kind of sanctions they want to impose he said that Europe and the US won’t be patient any longer and might ban some figures from travelling and freeze their bank assets outside Libya.” Ifheima explained.

Ifheima indicated that he answered Kobler on the sanctions he was hinting at by showing him the Libyan passport saying, “This is the first passport I get in my life and now that I’m 35, this is my first travel out of Libya and I’m ready to remain in my country for other 35 years - it would bother me none, but I will never betray the Libyans who elected me.”

MP Saleh Ifheima added that he also told Kobler to look for some other threatening phrases because many MPs do not have any assets inside the country nor outside it.

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