In a major development, rival forces in Libya are looking to sign a ceasefire agreement in Moscow today.
The Tripoli-based UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), headed by Fayez al-Sarraj, has been under siege for the past nine months by renegade commander Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA).
Turkey recently deployed troops to back the GNA, while the LNA receives support from Russia, Egypt, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates. Earlier this month, Russia and Turkey called for a conditional ceasefire between the warring factions to take place starting midnight on Sunday, January 12. The move, which was appreciated by Western powers, came after the LNA advanced into Sirte, a city on Libya’s coastline which holds immense strategic importance.
The LNA backtracked from its initial rejection of Ankara and Moscow’s efforts, presumably due to pressure from its foreign backers. Meanwhile, the GNA seems to be willing to enter settlement talks only on the condition that Haftar retracts his troops from southern Tripoli. These inconsistencies, doubled with the inherently fractured nature of Libya’s military factions make dialogue and diplomacy between the two sides extremely complicated and do not guarantee an end to hostilities even if a ceasefire agreement is signed.
A statement from the GNA said that officials reported gunfire from “the aggressor’s militias” in Wadi Rabea and Salaheddin just “minutes” after the ceasefire was supposed to begin at midnight on Sunday. On the other hand, LNA commander Al-Mabrouk Al-Gahazawi claimed that GNA troops dishonoured the truce “on more than one battlefront, with all types of weapons.”
According to Libya’s head of High Council of State Khaled al-Mechri, the signing of a formal agreement can pave the way for a revival of the country’s political process. Mechri will be accompanying al-Sarraj to Moscow, while Haftar will travel with the speaker of the Eastern-based parliament, Aguila Salah.
Image Credit: The National