France and US push new talks on Libya’s political future

A quiet diplomatic push is unfolding behind the scenes, raising fresh hopes that Libya’s long-stalled political crisis may finally be shifting, however questions remain behind the intent of many international actors.

Senior figures from Libya’s rival power centres arrived in Paris on January 28th as France and the United States step up efforts to break the country’s long-running political deadlock, as reported by Africa Intelligence.

The meeting at the Élysée Palace, overseen by Paul Soler, special envoy of French President Emmanuel Macron for Libya, alongside Massad Boulos, adviser on Africa and the Middle East to US President Donald Trump, aims to facilitate an agreement between the two dominant political families and to begin unifying Libya’s fractured institutions.

Both sides are represented in the French capital. Ibrahim Dbeibeh, adviser and nephew of Government of National Unity (GNU) Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, travelled from the west of the country, while Saddam Haftar, chief of staff of the Libyan National Army (LNA) and son of eastern leader Khalifa Haftar, came from Benghazi in the east. Discussions were focused on forming a reunified government in which responsibilities would be shared under the authority of a president.

Repeated attempts by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya to broker compromise have failed, including the most recent initiative linking the House of Representatives and the High Council of State.

Against this backdrop, Boulos has advanced a new political framework, one that is based on commercial diplomacy and investment, as per Trumps diplomatic doctrine. He has held separate meetings with the foreign ministers of Algeria and Tunisia and travelled to Tripoli on January 25th for the Libya Energy & Economic Summit, whilst also paying a visit to Saddam Haftar in Benghazi.

Since Trump’s re-election, Boulos has intensified his engagement on Libya, regularly visiting the country as Washington seeks to support the return of American oil companies.

By signing decades long agreements with the GNU, whose legitimacy is widely disputed and whose constitutional authority is being actively dismantled by the rival Supreme Court in the east, American oil companies seem to be actively entrenching the existing divisions within Libya, which begs the question of what is meant by the repeated calls for stability and unity from much of the international community.

For Trump, unifying Libya’s fragmented institutions through forming a single Libyan government is not necessary to achieve the desired “stability”. As long as investments are secure and the oil and gas keeps flowing out of Libya, then many would argue stability has been secured, at least within the perimeter of privatised oil fields.

Africa Intelligence, Libya Economic Review, Maghrebi.org