Splits cloud Italy’s Libyan peace effort

Breakthrough hopes bleak as getting rival Libyans together proves a challenge

First it was Cairo. Then Paris. Now, it’s Sicily, landing ground for migrants traversing the Mediterranean to Europe. As international officials descend on the Italian island for the latest effort to stitch together a divided Libya, hopes for a breakthrough are bleak as ever.

Italy’s two-day gathering, which began yesterday, is meant to be an opportunity for Libyans to agree on a new political framework, with international endorsement. What can be achieved, however, depends on who shows up.

Getting rival Libyans to sit at one table has proved as much of a challenge for Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte as it was for the Egyptians in February 2017. Cairo engineered a meeting between Fayez Al Sarraj, head of the UN-backed government in Tripoli, and Khalifa Haftar, a military commander who controls most of the east. The two men refused to be in the same room.

French President Emmanuel Macron brought them to Paris twice, trumpeting in May their commitment to hold elections in December. But as clashes closed Tripoli airport and Daesh attacked the electoral commission and National Oil Corporation, it became unachievable.

It was unclear as diplomats converged on the Sicilian capital whether Haftar would attend as 98 members of the House of Representatives, aligned with the general, issued a statement saying foreign meddling had “greatly harmed reconciliation efforts” .

The two-day gathering is meant to be an opportunity for Libyans to agree on a new political framework, with international endorsement.