Libya’s rival parties propose draft ceasefire agreement: UN

GENEVA: Libya’s warring sides have hashed out a draft ceasefire agreement, the UN said on Monday, even as Libyan leaders decried international inaction to rein in hostilities still raging in the war-ravaged country.

The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) announced that two rounds of indirect negotiations in Geneva between Libya’s Government of National Accord ( GNA) and eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar’s forces had resulted in a draft ceasefire deal.

The text, which will now be discussed by the leadership on both sides, proposes that the United Nations and a military commission with members from both sides monitor the safe return of displaced civilians to their homes.

The UN said the sides would meet again next month to discuss implementation terms, but given the state of hostility between the sides, prospects for a lasting truce remain unclear.

In the latest outbreak of fighting, Haftar launched his offensive on Tripoli last April but after rapid advances his forces stalled on the outskirts of the capital.

The fighting has claimed more than 1,000 lives and displaced some 140,000, according to the UN, while GNA says the numbers are far higher.

GNA foreign minister Mohamed Taha Syala meanwhile voiced particular criticism about international inaction to force an end to oil blockade, warning of the dire humanitarian consequences of cutting off the country’s main source of income.

Libya’s almost total retreat from the world oil market as unrest blocks its vital terminals, is helping OPEC meet production cuts, analysts say.

But a dramatic drop in output by a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries has not propped up crude oil prices, owing to a big fall in demand by China owing to the new coronavirus.

Libyan oil output has slumped since Jan.18, when forces loyal to military Haftar blocked exports from the country’s main ports. Oil is the North African nation’s main source of income.