Attempts at Peace in Libya

The civil conflict in Libya continues to exist, despite the best efforts of international actors such as the United Nations to resolve the situation in the country. According to an Al Jazeera report, “The top United Nations diplomat in Libya on Friday threatened international sanctions against leaders of the country’s rival parliaments, after one party rejected a draft U.N. agreement that would broker a unified government in the war-torn country and bring an end its worsening security and financial crisis.”

There is a belief that some from both governments are attempting to stop any deal from actually taking place. Libya is currently divided, with one government in Tripoli, and the other in Tobruk, and many are worried that without a unified government, the conflict will only continue to intensify. While there have been proposed solutions, according to the report, “This week, however, the Tobruk side rejected the proposal. According to some reports, Tobruk negotiators objected to a provision in the latest U.N. plan that says if the new government can’t agree on the national military’s leadership, then the current leadership — a Tobruk-aligned former Libyan general named Khalifa Hiftar — will be sacked and replaced by someone else.” To make matters more complicated, it seems that he has backing from outside actors in the Middle East (such as the UAE, as well as Egypt (Al Jazeera, 2015), who itself is dealing with various extremist groups in the Sinai and in other parts of Egypt).

With various actors having their own interests, and local power groups unwilling to give up influence, the situation in Libya, and attempts at brining together an agreement between different powers continues to remain quite difficult.