Western diplomats quietly drop Libyan election from agenda
The United Nations and western powers have given up hope that Libya will hold elections in the immediate future, and are focusing on reconciliation among rival factions locked in a cycle of conflict.
In May, France persuaded the major players in the country to verbally agree to elections on December 10 as a way of ending repeated rounds of bloodshed between competing factions that emerged after a 2011 Nato-backed uprising.
But weeks of fighting between rival militias in the capital Tripoli and deadlock between rump parliaments in Tripoli and the east has made that goal unrealistic, western diplomats said.
Shelving plans for presidential and parliamentary elections is the latest setback for the international powers that helped to topple Muammar Qaddafi seven years ago before stepping back and seeing hopes for a democratic transition crumble.
Instead of pushing for a vote as a short-term goal, UN Special Envoy Ghassan Salame will focus his briefing to the Security Council on staging a national conference next year and fixing the economy, diplomats said.
The conference would aim to forge consensus in a country divided between hundreds of armed groups controlling mostly minimal territory, towns, tribes and regions.
Libya has two governments – a UN-backed administration in the capital and an eastern version aligned with influential veteran commander Khalifa Haftar, whose forces control much of the east.
Mr Salame will also push again for economic reforms to end a system benefiting armed groups that have access to cheap dollars because of their power over banks.
There was no immediate comment from the Tripoli government nor the eastern parliament.
Diplomats say delayed reforms introduced in Tripoli in September, including a fee on purchases of foreign currency, can only partially ease Libya’s economic woes as long as the central bank remains divided and predatory factions retain their positions. The reforms have so far done little to improve conditions for ordinary Libyans hit by steep inflation and a cash crisis linked to the fall of the dinar on the black market.
The sources said Mr Salame would outline a new “security arrangement” for Tripoli aimed at depriving the militias of control of key sites and integrating their members into regular forces – something that has proved elusive in the past.
Mr Salame is the sixth UN special envoy for Libya since 2011.
Talks to unify rival camps launched in September last year – shortly after he took up his post – ground to a halt after a month, with Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s role a sticking point. Many in western Libya oppose him, fearing he could use the process to take power.
Field Marshal Haftar’s Libyan National Army says it is committed to elections, in which he is a possible candidate. UN efforts to stabilise Libya have long been undercut by the divergent agendas of foreign powers.
The international community formally backs the transitional government in Tripoli, but Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have lent Field Marshal Haftar support and European states including France courted the commander as his power grew.
Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu met the Libyan commander on Wednesday, possibly signalling growing Russian interest in the conflict.
Moscow has long backed Field Marshal Haftar, who visited the Russian capital last year.
France led the push for elections, believing it could help to fix the Libya conflict, before realising the country was not ready for a vote, diplomats said.