Experts, officials differ on effectiveness of Paris meet to resolve Libya’s political crisis
Experts and officials hold divergent views on the Paris meeting that brought together Libyan parties to find a solution` to the political crisis, as some considered it an opportunity while others expressed pessimism.
“We have reached a stage where we need resolute international political intervention to pressure the Libyan parties to stop dodging and wasting time,” parliament member Mohamed Abdullah told Xinhua, mentioning previous failure in implementing the 2015 political agreement signed in Morocco’s Skhirat, which aimed to unify rival governments.
Abdullah called the meeting a “great opportunity” for the Libyan actors to overcome the dispute over fresh elections, ending threats to the country at home and abroad. He also stressed that the opportunity is vital as the country is politically divided and economically suffering, with terrorism still posing a threat despite its losses in Sirte and Benghazi.
The Paris meeting on Libya held Tuesday brings the opponents together in a bid to end the political division and unite Libya’s sovereign institutions after years of conflict between Libya’s east and west. It was also attended by the UN, the EU, the African Union and the League of Arab States, as well as more than 20 representatives of Arab and foreign countries, in an attempt to rally wide international support around it.
Disagreeing with Abdullah, parliament member Mosbah Wahida described the Paris meeting as “an attempt to abort the political agreement to serve specific interests.”
Wahida said the meeting called for “imposition of guardianship,” adding that the final communique called on the UN Mission in Libya to determine the election date, terms and conditions, as if the mission is “the ruler in Libya.”
“We should be the ones to decide what we want without dictates. We do not need an agreement of another kind that violates the agreement of Skhirat, which might further confuse the already confused scene,” Wahida told Xinhua.
He stressed that “the parties should have activated the UNsponsored political agreement, which includes the executive authority, unification of the sovereign institutions, adoption of a constitution, on which the elections are based, and the transition to a permanent phase.”
In the meeting’s final communique, UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj, head of the Libyan High Council of State Khalid al-Meshri, the east-based Parliament Speaker Agila Saleh and the east-based army commander Khalifa Haftar pledged “to work constructively with the UN to hold credible and peaceful elections and to respect election results.”
The rival Libyan factions also agreed to hold “credible” presidential and parliamentary elections on December 10.
The final communique also stipulated that all parties must accept the results of the elections and provide security needs to protect the elections process.
Italy has expressed alarm and lack of support for the Paris meeting. Giuseppe Perrone, the Italian ambassador to Libya, tweeted one day before the meeting that “disagreements and unorganized initiatives will contribute to the return of death boats [illegal immigrant flows to Europe].”
The Italian ambassador added that “the goal is not to increase commitments, but to implement what has been committed to on Libya,” referring to the unimplemented UN-sponsored 2015 political agreement that the international community has supported.
“A lasting solution to the Libyan crisis must come out of Libyans themselves. Holding parliamentary and presidential elections requires internal steps for the Libyans to take, while engaging in a true, inclusive dialogue at societal level,” Perrone tweeted.
The political agreement signed by the Libyan parties in December 2015 in Morocco faces serious obstacles in implementation of its provisions due to differences between the parties. In a briefing before the UN Security Council last week, UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame stressed that it is time to focus on holding the elections rather than amendment of the agreement.
Salame’s call was considered by many to be a clear declaration by the international community to abandon the stalled political agreement and an attempt to move toward international initiatives and support.