With eye on Daesh, Western powers push Libyans to accord
DEAL ALLOWS LIBYA TO ASK FOR INTERNATIONAL MILITARY ASSISTANCE TO FIGHT TERRORISTS
The United States and Italy yesterday led an international diplomatic push to get Libya’s warring factions to sign a deal to form a unity government, hoping it will stop the spread of Daesh militancy in the North African country.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Italian counterpart, Paolo Gentiloni, flanked by United Nation’s envoy Martin Kobler and 18 delegates began a meeting to press the Libyan camps to move forward after a year of UN talks.
Delegations from Libya’s two rival governments last week agreed to slate December 16 as a date to sign the deal, but opponents are resisting. Past deadlines have slipped while wide areas of the large oil-producing country splintered into fiefs of rival armed factions.
A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the one-day meeting would endorse the Libyan agreement, hoping it would give Libyans confidence to move ahead knowing they had the support of the international community. “Libyans wanted to know that if they took this step the international community would support them on it,” the official told reporters.
The agreement would allow a new Libyan government to ask for international military assistance to fight Daesh’s growing presence, which has mushroomed since a West-backed rebellion toppled Muammar Gaddafi four years ago.
“Libyans want to fight back, they want international help in fighting back,” the official said. “That is up to the Libyans, ultimately, but we expect that they will do so, and the outsiders will then help with training and equipping in appropriate ways.” With Libya less than 300km across the Mediterranean Sea, Italy has sought to focus international attention on Libya since last month’s deadly attacks in Paris.
Daesh threat
With around 3,000 terrorists, Daesh has taken over the city of Sirte. It has attacked a hotel and a prison in Tripoli, oilfields and military checkpoints, and released a video of it beheading 21 Egyptian Christians on a Libyan beach. “We must show that governments can act faster and more effectively than the terrorist threat,” Gentiloni said on Saturday.
The recognised government and elected House of Representatives have operated only in the east of Libya since last year, when the capital Tripoli was seized by a faction that set up its own government. Each side is backed by competing alliances of former anti-Gaddafi rebels.
The UN proposal calls for a presidential council with the House of Representatives as the legislature alongside a second consultative chamber, the State Council. The presidential council could form a government in 30 days once a deal is signed and that would be ratified by parliament and backed by the UN Security Council resolution.
But with Libya already fragmented, questions remain about how opponents and armed factions which might reject a deal will react to what they will see as an unrepresentative Tripoli government, and how they can be brought on-board after.
“Ending negotiations will strengthen hardliners; Granting recognition to a government that has insufficient backing will condemn it to irrelevance,” International Crisis Group said in a statement before the Rome meeting.
Any government faces huge challenges with the oil industry battered by attacks and protests. Output is less than half of the 1.6 million barrels per day the Opec state had before 2011. Armed factions, including Daesh group, are deployed across divided Libya, gripped by chaos and insecurity since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi. These include:
Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn):
A diverse and well-armed alliance of militias, Fajr Libya seized the capital Tripoli in August 2014 after fierce battles with rival militiamen from the western town of Zintan. It is considered the armed wing of the Tripoli-based government, an administration that disputes the internationallyrecognised government.
It controls virtually all of the coastal cities, from Misrata to the border with Tunisia.
Libyan National Army:
The internationally recognised government based in eastern Libya appointed in March retired General Khalifa Haftar to head the armed forces. Haftar was previously considered a renegade and had set up a powerful paramilitary force including former officers of Gaddafi’s army aimed at fighting “terrorism”.
Daesh:
The terrorist group which controls swathes of Syria and Iraq has exploited the chaos that spread across Libya since the uprising to extend its influence in the oil-rich country in 2014.
Since then it has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Tripoli, mostly against embassies, as well as the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians in February. That same month Daesh entered Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte and claimed control over the coastal city in June.