UN’S LIBYA ENVOY ARRIVES IN CAIRO FOR MORE TALKS
‘Arrest’ of former Libyan PM underscores urgent need for action by Ghassan Salame and national leaders
Newly installed United Nations Libya envoy Ghassan Salame was in Cairo yesterday for the latest round of discussions with the Egyptian leadership on resolving the Libyan crisis.
Mr Salame’s meetings in Egypt came after former Libyan prime minister Ali Zeidan, who served in the elected post between 2012 and 2014, was detained in Tripoli by the Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade militia.
The “arrest” was the second time Mr Zeidan had been taken from a hotel and underscored a political landscape dominated by tribalism and patronage from other Arab nations.
“Egypt has been engaged militarily in Libya. Cairo has supported Libya’s counterrevolutionary camp led by [Field Marshal] Khalifa Haftar in a clear, one-sided manner from the start. So it is difficult for Egypt to be neutral,” said Jalel Harchaoui, who researches Libya at Paris 8 University.
Field Marshal Haftar is the commander of the Libyan National Army, which is aligned with the elected House of Representatives parliament in the east of the country. A rival UN-backed administration is based in Tripoli.
Egyptian president Abdel Fatah El Sisi has praised Field Marshal Haftar for his leadership against Islamist militants who control parts of eastern and southern Libya.
Cairo, which has a labour force of about 750,000 people who work in Libya, bombed militant targets in the eastern Libyan city of Derna in May in response to attacks on Coptic Christians on Palm Sunday.
Mr Harchaoui was hopeful Mr Salame’s diplomatic background could be a positive factor in the latest talks but was pessimistic about any great progress.
This experience, he said, “doesn’t necessarily mean Egypt and the UN special envoy Ghassan Salame are in a position to work together constructively and help Libya make headway towards peace”.
Field Marshal Haftar’s political standing in Libya has also been bolstered by direct support from Russia.
Yesterday, he met Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, with the latter signalling Moscow’s willingness to cement its presence in the region.
The UN-backed government of prime minister Fayez Al Sarraj in Tripoli has struggled to assert its authority and been thwarted by Field Marshal Haftar’s hard bargaining.
Mr Al Sarraj recently met US ambassador to Libya Peter Bodde to raise matters of security.
When pressed yesterday about the possible expansion of the US military role in Libya, United States Africa Command spokeswoman Samantha Reho said only that “there is a small number of US forces who have gone in and out of Libya to exchange information with local forces and they will continue to do so as we strengthen the fight against ISIS”.
Mr Bodde and Gen Thomas Waldhauser of Africom have met Mr Salame and the Egyptian armed forces chief of staff, Mahmoud Hegazy.
Mr Harchaoui said that the suggestion of a substantial Egyptian role as mediator in the Libyan crisis was rhetoric.
“When it comes to Egypt’s role in the Libyan conflict, progress towards an authentic political deal is possible, but it is not probable,” he said. “I do not expect a breakthrough.”
The academic advocated a more nuanced political approach to the crisis that took into account how Libyans are suffering rather than one viewed solely through a security prism.