Hopes for peace in Libya after Cairo talks
PM and military commander in separate discussions, but Tripoli signals it will offer field marshal a spot in unity government
CAIRO // Libya’s UN- backed prime minister and its most powerful military commander held indirect talks in Cairo yesterday in a bid to end more than two years of civil war. But doubts remained about whether the head of the Government of National Accord, Fayez Al Sarraj, and Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar would meet.
Egypt has urged them to come together and resolve an impasse between the GNA, based in Tripoli, and the House of Representatives in Tobruk, to which Field Marshal Haftar is allied.
While details of the talks were unclear, government spokesman Ashraf Al Tulty said there would be a “180-degree turn” if Field Marshal Haftar agreed to take a role within the GNA.
Until now that body has refused to guarantee him a role, leading the House of Representatives to reject the UN’s Libya Political Agreement for a unity government.
Egypt and its neighbours Algeria and Tunisia want to end the civil war, which is causing regional instability. Cairo says militants armed with Libyan weapons are battling its security forces in the Sinai Peninsular.
Tunisia, on Libya’s western border, has suffered attacks by ISIL fighters trained in Libya.
Equally concerned is Italy, which is coping with record levels of migration through Libya across the Mediterranean.
Rome last year accepted a record 180,000 migrants who travelled through Libya and the issue has become politically sensitive in Italy and the whole EU.
Italy and Malta, holder of the rotating EU presidency, have begun talks with Mr Al Sarraj about joint action to intercept migrant smugglers at sea, and break up powerful militias who profit from the trade on land.
But EU diplomats say that with militias battling each other in Tripoli and fighting Field Marshal Haftar’s forces further east, there is no effective way of policing the trafficking routes.
Field Marshal Haftar, commander of the country’s most powerful military force, the Libya National Army, is regarded by diplomats as the key to any successful peace process.
He has already secured strong support from Russia, which has a presence off the Libyan coast.
On January 11, he spoke with Moscow’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu about joint military cooperation.
This week Italy’s ambassador to Libya, Guiseppe Perrone, called for Field Marshal Haftar to have a role in a “unified military organisation” that could tackle migrant traffickers and ISIL units.
And British foreign secretary Boris Johnson, another key supporter of the GNA, said last week: “That’s the crucial question: how to make sure that Haftar is in some way integrated into the government of Libya.” But there is no agreement yet on what role Field Marshal Haftar should have.
The House of Representatives in January last year refused to support the Libya Political Agreement unless it retained the power to appoint the country’s commander-in-chief, with Haftar its preferred candidate.
His capture of four central oil ports, giving the House of Representatives command of Libya’s biggest oil region, known as the oil crescent, last September saw them promote him to Field Marshal, Libya’s highest military rank.
Mr Al Sarraj is unlikely to win support from all members of the GNA in Tripoli to give Field Marshal Haftar such a role, and the city’s militias, fearing for their future, are also likely to reject the move.
Nevertheless, Cairo will feel it has at least made the first move in encouraging the sides to talk, with the UN Support Mission for Libya having failed to achieve unity through its own talks process.
Egypt is likely to continue to press Mr Al Sarraj and Field Marshal Haftar to meet in the coming days.
The UN is taking a back seat in the Cairo talks, with uncertainty over who will replace its depart- ing envoy, Martin Kobler, after Washington rejected the proposal of UN secretary general Antonio Guterres that it be former Palestine prime minister Salam Fayyad.
Meanwhile, fighting continues in Libya on several fronts.
On Friday the Libya National Army said it destroyed 40 vehicles belonging to a militia, the Benghazi Defence Brigades, which it said was threatening the oil crescent near the town of Hun.
In Benghazi, the Libya National Army continues battling militias in two city centre enclaves, while in Tripoli a new militia alliance, the Libyan National Guard, is battling rival militias in several districts of the city.