LIBYA FACES UNCERTAINTY AFTER CANCELLED PEACE TALKS IN TUNIS

▶ National reconciliation a long way off as country remains at risk of political ‘eruption’

Doubts hang over a Libyan peace summit scheduled to take place in April after the latest efforts to achieve reconciliation were cancelled.

The National Reconciliation Summit is set to be held in the coastal city of Sirte on April 28, with the event backed by the UN and African Union.

But experts have suggested the talks will fail to achieve progress because personal interests continue to stand in the way of peace.

Othman Ben Sassi, a former member of Libya’s disbanded National Transitional Council, said the public had lost faith in the reconciliation process.

“Talks have just turned into a mere routine,” he told The National from Tripoli.

“People have lost their trust in the entire political elite.”

Mr Ben Sassi spoke after a reconciliation meeting in Tunis was cancelled abruptly.

The two-day talks were due to begin yesterday, with more than 100 politicians from the House of Representatives and High Council of State expected to take part.

No official explanation has been given for the cancellation, but reports in Libya blamed a “lack of appropriate permissions” to hold the meeting.

The country has been gripped by unrest since former leader Muammar Qaddafi’s regime was overthrown in 2011.

Libya is divided between two administrations, one in Tripoli and the other in Benghazi.

Elections were scheduled to take place in 2021, but the vote was cancelled over disagreements about the electoral law and who should be allowed to stand in the polls.

The UN and regional powers, including the African Union, have since attempted to find common ground between the rival political powers in the hope that the elections could be rearranged.

But Mr Ben Sassi said there was little political will for reconciliation in Libya.

“The aim of this political elite is not true state building, but it is rather about maximising personal gains,” he said.

The latest figures from the National Unity Government in Tripoli show that about $3 million was allocated as salaries for its legislative and executive bodies in the first nine months of last year. While the salaries of government officials increased in recent years, the average public sector wage remains about $240, tracker Bdex found.

Hafed Al Ghwell, senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins University’s Foreign Policy Institute, told The National that national reconciliation required major changes in Libya.

“They [politicians] do not have a political agenda and all they are doing is fight over money,” he said.

The public has called for free and fair elections.

Tripoli resident Sara Elwheshi, 26, is among those who wants to have a say in the country’s future.

“Since 2011, we have been suffering from a crisis that has affected, in one way or another, societal conditions and caused a tragic decline in public services such as education and health,” she told The National.

She urged the country’s leaders to work towards political reconciliation.

“Elections are an essential part of the democratic process and the Libyan people have the right to determine its political future,” she said.

“There is always hope, even if the steps falter and we face some complications, improving the situation is neither far away nor impossible.”

But Mr Ben Sassi warned that Libyans are living in a “volcano zone”, with political tensions at risk of erupting into conflict at any moment.

The UN’s envoy to Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, told the Security Council this month that politicians needed to put aside their differences if there was to be progress on election plans.

“Key institutional stakeholders appear unwilling to resolve the outstanding politically contested issues that would clear the path to the long-awaited elections in Libya,” he said.

Elections scheduled in 2021 were cancelled over disagreements about the electoral law and who should stand in the polls