Libya: a light at the end of the tunnel?
The ceasefire agreement signed by Libya’s opposing military factions in October 2020 bolstered UN-backed political talks on the appointment of an interim unity government.
This new government is expected to hold national election in late December of this year. The goal, as stated by Stephanie Williams, current UN Secretary-General’s Acting Special Representative, is “to respond to the aspirations and demands of the Libyan people for a sovereign and unified Libya and a true commitment to national reconciliation”.
Last Friday, delegates attending the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) in Geneva eventually agreed to elect a Prime Minister and a three-member presidency council from a list of 45 candidates, with Mohammad Menfi and Abdul Hamid Dbeibah selected as the Head of the Presidential Council and Prime Minister, respectively.
Despite these encouraging developments, the brittleness of the current truce between the GNA and LNA, as well as the presence of foreign interference on both sides, represent intimidating stumbling blocks on the path to diplomacy, thus making the mission of the newly appointed UN Special Representative for Libya Jan Kubis anything but simple.
Panel discussion Mary Fitzgerald, Associate Fellow, ICSR, King’s College London Karim Mezran, Director of the North Africa Initiative and Resident Senior Fellow, Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs, Atlantic Council Arturo Varvelli, Head, Rome Office, and Senior Policy Fellow, ECFR Chair Federica Saini Fasanotti, Senior Associate Fellow, ISPI
MED – MEDITERRANEAN DIALOGUES is the annual high-level initiative promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and ISPI (Italian Institute for International Political Studies) in Rome with the aim to rethink traditional approaches to the area complementing analyses of current challenges with new ideas and suggestions and to draft a new “positive agenda”, addressing shared challenges at both the regional and the international level.
Launched in 2015, MED has quickly become the global hub for high–level dialogues on the broader Mediterranean engaging prominent leaders of Mediterranean governments, business, civil society, media and academia.
Past editions have brought together more than 1,000 international leaders, including Heads of State and Ministers (among them, the King of Jordan, the Iraqi and Lebanese’s President, Ministers of Foreign Affairs from Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE, the US Secretary of State, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Envoy for Syria, as well as the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the first Vice-President of the Commission and many others)