Ghadames meeting: Signs of Libyan crisis easing
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya on Saturday,
October 31 revealed that the 5+5 Joint Libyan Military Committee was meeting
for the first time in the city of Ghadames, southwest of Tripoli, from November
2-4. This is the fifth joint military meeting, although the previous four
meetings were held outside Libya.
According to the UN Mission, the participants in the meeting
will discuss the implementation of the permanent ceasefire agreement, and it is
expected that the parties will also address the issue of establishing
sub-committees, in addition to monitoring and verification mechanisms for the
lull.
A few days ago, the United Nations announced that the 5+5 Joint
Libyan Military Committee had signed an agreement in Geneva for a permanent
ceasefire in Libya.
The Mission stated that the fifth round comes “after the
signing of the permanent ceasefire agreement in Geneva,” noting that the talks
will be attended by Acting Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General
in Libya Stephanie Williams.
This meeting precedes the political dialogue talks that the
United Nations invited 75 Libyan personalities to participate in, which starts
on November 9 in Tunis, with the aim of discussing the formation of a unified
and consensual authority.
This authority is supposed to manage a transitional period
in Libya, pending the holding of parliamentary and presidential elections.
These developments coincide with the retreat of Tripoli-based
Government of National Accord head Fayez al-Sarraj from his resignation at the
end of October as scheduled, under the pretext of calls for him to stay for a
temporary period.
In this context, Sarraj agreed with Williams that the Libyan
Political Dialogue Forum “is a historic opportunity for the Libyans to decide
to move towards a political solution away from any foreign interference.”
Accordingly, the two sides stressed the need for the
political solution to include all Libyans.
Libya has been witnessing chaos and violence since the fall
of the Muammar Gaddafi regime in 2011 in protests supported militarily by NATO.
