Libya still resistant to UN’s national unity deal

The UN has proposed a national unity government to Libya’swarring factions, aimed at ending their conflict, but the deal faces resistance from Tripoli’s self-declared rulers and hardliners on the ground.

Libya is caught up in a war between the internationally recognised government (and its elected parliament) and another government controlling Tripoli. Each side is backed by rival alliances of armed factions. Four years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, Western powers are pushing for both sides to accept the UN accord, fearing that violence has allowed Islamist militants to gain ground and illegal refugee and migrant smugglers to take advantage of the chaos.

Libya’s recognised government has operated out of the east of the country since last year, when an armed faction called Libya Dawn took over Tripoli and reinstated a former parliament known as the GNC (General National Congress) The UN proposal comes after months of protracted negotiations between delegates from both sides. Meanwhile, continued fighting has halted some of Libya’s oil production.

“The GNC decided yesterday not to propose names [for the unity government] and to ask for more changes in the text,” UN envoy Bernardino Leon told reporters in the Moroccan cityof Skhirat, site of recent talks. “The international communityhas beenveryclear that, after huge efforts to adapt the text ... it is not possible to continue to do this.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon yesterday urged the parties to accept and sign the agreement. In a statement, he called for “Libyan leaders not to squander this opportunity to put the country back on the path to building a state that reflects the spirit and ambitions of the 2011 revolution”.

“We believe this list can work,” Mr Leon said of a new presidential council. It includes three deputies, to represent Libya’s east, west and south, for the prime minister, named as Fayez Sarraj, a Tripoli representative in the internationally recognised Tobruk House of Representatives.

Naima Jibril, a judge, praised the list’s inclusion of two female ministers. “Libyan women are capable of playing successful roles in future government,” she said.

The UN proposal comes after months of protracted negotiation