UN may force Tripoli government to reject latest peace deal

The most recent fourth draft of a UN-sponsored plan for a unity government in Libya was originally received positively by the Tripoli government and negatively by the internationally-recognized House or Representatives(HoR) government based in Tobruk.

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There was some doubt that the Tobruk government would even attend the talks when they were renewed last Friday. No doubt there was great pressure for the HoR representatives to return. They did so after passing proposed amendments to the draft which would deprive the General National Congress government in Tripoli of any real power. When the Tripoli delegates arrived to renew the dialogue they found that they were discussing not the original fourth draft but one amended in a number of ways, but all favorable to the Tobruk government and weakening the power of the GNC group, The full text of the new "fifth" draft can be found at the Libya Herald but can be accessed only if you subscribe. Amendments proposed by Tripoli were ignored in the new draft. Apparently no reporters have bothered to look at the document and report on it,. The document does not appear on the UN site. All changes were put into the document without the consultation or agreement of the Tripoli group. There was no agreement after the talks last weekend. The parties returned to Libya to talk to their governments.

Amending the draft without consultation was not the only slap in the face to the Tripoli government. The special envoy to Libya who arranges the talks, Bernardino Leon, had discussions with the Misrata militia leaders without ever consulting or receiving approval from the senior officials of the Tripoli forces. Leon insists he is following a parallel series of discussions with the military of each side. On the Tobruk side, the commander of the Libyan forces Khalifa Haftar has made it clear he will neither negotiate with nor sign a ceasefire with Libya Dawn the main Tripoli military force.This apparently is not regarded as an interference with or blocking of the peace process that might warrant his being sanctioned. Leon said he would meet with representatives of the Tobruk military in Cairo. No names are mentioned. The name Khalifa Haftar is seldom mentioned in many reports on Libya lately.

News headlines about the talks all emphasize that the talks are not convening because the Tripoli government did not come. This was clear earlier as I reported in an article yesterday. The Tripoli news sources had announced yesterday they were not coming. News agencies might not have noticed but the bosses behind the UN did. Here is just a sample of what the Libya Observer claims as to what happened, according to GNC Speaker Nuri Abu Sahmain as he addressed protesters opposed to the draft plan:He told the protesters that Peter Millett had contacted one of HoR boycotters and threatened him to accept the draft. "The British ambassador, who is not accredited to us, asked the HoR boycotter to urge other boycotters to go to the GNC today and press it to ratify the draft. He threatened him that the murder of 37 tourists in Tunisia would be placed on Libya because the attacker trained in Libya." He added that Millet has also threatened to include the unnamed HoR boycotter in the UN sanctions list if he didn't encourage the GNC to sign the draft.An HoR boycotter is a person elected to the HoR but who boycotted meetings. Sahmain claimed that the French Ambassador Antoine Sivan met the GNC dialogue team and threatened the Second Deputy Speaker with a negative outcome if the GNC did not sign the draft, According to Sahmain, Sivan said;"If you didn't sign the draft, a civil war would erupt in your country, assets of the Central Bank of Libya would be frozen, plan B would be implemented to seize oil ports and fields and airports."There is already a civil war in Libya. Who exactly would seize oil ports and assets of the Central Bank? I presume it would be the internationally recognized government using the forces of commander CIA-linked General Khalifa Haftar and with international blessing and support. Amazing that such disturbing reports are entirely missing from articles on the talks by at least half a dozen prominent news agencies including Reuters, and AFP. Are they really unaware of what is being said by the GNC, or do they know but not think it is worth reporting? The Libya Observer is a pro-Tripoli news site but surely it is worth finding out and reporting on what the other side believes to be the case.

A Reuters summary of the new draft is accurate enough and points out that the 120 member State Council is now a consultative body. In the original fourth draft,the State Council with 90 of the 120 members being from the GNC would have been able to block legislation of the HoR, the only legislative body, if a majority of the Council opposed it. This gave the GNC group some actual power. No doubt that is why it suddenly disappeared when the groups convened last Friday to discuss the draft and found a fifth draft in place that took away this power.

As often happens, the UN security council becomes involved with Libya, in this instance pushing parties to sign the fourth draft, as amended to make the GNC impotent, on pain of facing sanctions:The United Nations Security Council has urged acceptance of the latest peace accord and warned that it was still prepared to sanction those who blocked political transition.The Security Council said it was ready to act against “those who threaten Libya’s peace, stability and security or that undermine the successful completion of its political transition”. It gave unqualified backing to UNSMIL chief Bernardino Leon and Draft Five of the Peace Accord. It welcomed last week’s negotiations in Morocco and urged rapid agreement and signing of the deal.

Surely talking with militia in Misrata without approval of Tripoli military authorities threatens the peace process as does making amendments to the fourth draft without consulting with or getting the approval of the Tripoli negotiators. Maybe the UN should sanction Leon. Earlier, the Tobruk government pulled out of negotiations and did not return until they had a draft that they knew the Tripoli government could not accept. The Tobruk government was not threatened with sanctions for pulling out. Most of their demands were met. Now we are back at the same play but this time it seems there is a concerted plan as I described a few days ago:Leon may have introduced amendments that he knows Tripoli disapproves as a means of forcing the Tripoli government to reject the agreement and then Tripoli can be blamed for the failure of the talks. This could make Tobruk look to be for peace but now the talks having failed the Haftar military solution Operation Dignity will be justified. Unlike the UN Haftar has always maintained that there is a military solution to the crisis and that a political agreement is highly unlikely.We should know what will happen by the end of this week and perhaps by then there will be some news on the parallel talks with military forces of the two sides.

There is no news of any meeting of Leon with the Libya National Army representatives in Cairo. There is news that Libya Dawn has rejected the present draft. There appears no hope of a ceasefire or any agreement between the two military forces. This may not matter since the plan may be for the international community to rally behind Khalifa Haftar and the Tobruk government with the Tripoli government sanctioned and Libya Dawn becoming an enemy of peace and a proper target for Haftar's Operation Dignity.

Commander of Tobruk government armed forces refuses to join peace dialogue in Libya

After the last round of talks in Morocco with representatives of the two rival governments in Libya, the UN Special Envoy to Libya, Bernardino Leon, claimed that the two sides were very close to an agreement.

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The two sides were to go back to Libya for consultations and then return this week to reach a final agreement on a unity government. Leon noted talks between the two main military forces — Libya Dawn associated with the Tripoli government, and the Libyan National Army commanded by CIA-linked General Khalifa Haftar, associated with the internationally-recognized Tobruk government — would be necessary for the agreement to work and to reach a ceasefire. He was to make those arrangements last week. Finally after a long silence the UN has issued two press releases.

The first release can be found here while the most recent release is here. Nowhere in either of these releases is there even a mention of the two military forces having a dialogue. Indeed the two press releases are notable by what they leave out. They do include the letter sent to the parties along with the third draft proposals for a unity government. They leave out the draft proposals themselves. They can be accessed through the Libya Herald but you will need to subscribe to see them. The UN could easily have provided the text or a link to it but may have intended to keep it under wraps.

The letter sets out some of the background of the draft. It has some interesting passages including the following:At its core, this draft agreement is anchored in the inviolability of the democratic process and in recognition of judicial decisions. This includes upholding the results of Libya’s democratic elections in June 2014, as well as taking all steps necessary to prevent a constitutional vacuum in line with the principle of the continuity of the state, This is a practice that is well established in countless judicial and political systems around the world, and one which can be justifiably invoked with respect to the 6 November 2014 ruling by the Constitutional Circuit of Libya’s Supreme Court.This is bizarre beyond belief.

The Supreme Court Ruling referred to on November 6 declared the June elections in 2014 for the House of Representatives (Tobruk government) were unconstitutional and the Tobruk parliament should be dissolved. Just how can a decision that declares the June elections unconstitutional be squared with the contention that the results of those elections be upheld? It is this decision of the Supreme Constitutional Court that the Tripoli government uses to claim its legitimacy. Never mind that the UN position makes no sense, it squares the circle by recognizing the legitimacy of the House of Representatives, that is the Tobruk government legislature, as demanded by the Tobruk government, but also makes reference to the Supreme Court Ruling used by the Tripoli government to buttress its own claims to legitimacy. So both sides are supposed to be happy. Of course they are not. The GNC, Tripoli government rejects the draft completely as it is. Specific parties have also rejected the draft including the Muslim Brotherhood, Justice and Construction Party, and the Alwatan Party. A senior official of the Tobruk government told the Anadolu Company that the UN proposal was "disappointing, unbalanced, and disrespectful of the nation's Supreme Constitutional Court ruling."

The UN news releases tell nothing of these rejections but simply says "the Mission has noted initial feedback to the draft agreement". Nor will the UN tell you why there are no meetings of the two main military forces. It does not even mention that there will be no meetings. The Libya Herald explains:Operation Dignity has rejected an invitation from UN Special Envoy Bernardino Leon to join in the military platform of the Dialogue process. It says it is part of the regular army, not a militia, and that it takes its instructions only from the General Staff and the head of the armed forces. It complained that Leon was treating it as just another militia. It did not negotiate or get involved in talks with militias, a spokesman said on Karama TV. Separately, both Wanis Bukhamada, the head of Saiqa Special Forces and Jamal Al-Zahawi, head of 21 Brigade (Shuhada Al-Zawia Brigade) have said that the political dialogue “is dead”... Fadel Al-Hassi, the head of Saiqa’s Investigations Unit, reports Bukhamada saying the UN process is finished and that the army is not going to be part of it.The head of the armed forces is General Khalifa Haftar, who began Operation Dignity last May and was at the time subject to an arrest warrant for attempting a coup. Abdullah al-Thinni was then prime minister of the GNC transitional government and called Haftar's action ,which included attacks on Benghazi islamist militias and the burning of the Tripoli parliament, illegal. He is now prime minister of the Tobruk government and has made Haftar commander of the Tobruk armed forces. Haftar takes it for granted that the Tobruk government is the legitimate government and his armed forces the only forces to be recognized. There will be no dialogue with Haftar. How can there be a viable political solution as long as this is the state of affairs?

Haftar has never made a secret of his contempt for the dialogue process. He has time after time said there will be no ceasefire with militias and called the dialogue talks with terrorists. He has constantly thumbed his nose at the UN. His suggestion to Leon when he briefs the UN on the Libyan situation is that Leon should urge the UN to remove the arms embargo on Libya. He is pursuing a military solution. The UN simply ignores this reality. UNSMIL cannot even bring themselves to mention his name or to note that he refused to engage in the dialogue process.

As shown on the appended video Leon is now hoping for an agreement on a unity government by June. No mention of talks between military forces. This farce cannot end yet because it must look as if the parties are trying to forge a political solution even though this involves ignoring reality. It cannot appear that the U.S. and other western countries are not working very diligently to bring peace, prosperity, and democracy to Libya. If this is what they are trying to do why are they making no move to reign in Haftar who refuses to participate in any dialogue and is actively pursuing a military solution? Even if there is an agreement, and that seems improbable, how could it ever be implemented since it requires a cease fire between Haftar and the opposing militias? Leon claims it is difficult to be optimistic that an agreement can be reached. Finally, even the ever optimistic Leon is showing some signs that the farce may end soon with no agreement.

Bombing of Tripoli airport by Haftar delays arrival of Tripoli delegates at Libyan peace talks

The internationally recognized government in Tripoli sent planes to bomb Tripoli's only functioning airport just as some representatives from the Tripoli government were preparing to leave for scheduled peace talks in Morocco.

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The Matiga airport is also a military base but is now used for commercial flights as the main airport was badly damaged in earlier clashes between forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar, now commander of the Libyan Armed forces of the Tobruk government, and Libya Dawn. His allies were driven out of the airport by Libya Dawn militia associated with the Tripoli government. At the time, Haftar also bombed Tripoli a number of times in association with planes thought to be from the UAE and supported by Egypt. The recent attack by Haftar damaged the runway but repairs were expected to be finished later the same day. A spokesperson for the airport, Abdusalam Buamoud reported:"Fighting jets conducted air strikes on Matiga airport early today which damaged the runway." No one was hurt by the bombing. However, the air strike did delay the arrival of the delegation from Tripoli to the peace talks in Rabat Morocco. Mohamed El Hejazi, a spokesman of forces allied to Thinni responsible for the attack claimed that the strike was part of a war against terrorism a war that would continue until Libya has been freed of terrorism. Tobruk government planes also bombed Tripoli before the talks first began in Morocco. Haftar promised that he would do no bombing for three days during the talks. During one period in late February, the Tobruk government withdrew from the talks.

After peace talks in early February, both sides agreed to a cease fire. However Haftar insisted that the battle against terrorism would continue and carried on battling in Benghazi against opponents there. Groups associated with the Tripoli government also violated the cease fire. However, media attention lately has been focused on the actions of the Islamic State forces in Libya who carried out several attacks on oil fields, a luxury hotel in Tripoli, as well as beheading a number of Egyptian Coptic Christians. This was followed by Egyptian planes bombing IS positions in Derna and then a revenge suicide attack by the IS. Areas held by both sides have been attacked by the Islamic State. Recently forces from the Tripoli government have been clashing with the IS in Sirte which has been taken over the by the group. In recent clashes a top IS commander from Tunisia was killed.

The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) condemned the recent bombing of Tripoli :This latest attack is risking sparking an escalation that threatens to undermine the ongoing political dialogue process at a time when the talks are at a decisive phase. The United Nations is gathering information about the attack, but its timing suggests it might be intended to undermine the national dialogue.An earlier attack by Tripoli forces on the Zintan airport held by Haftar allies was also condemned.The UN press release notes that the bombing delayed the arrival of the Tripoli delegates to the talks. The talks are to resume today March 20.

While it is in the interest of all Libyans to have a unity government, one of the aims of the talks, Libyans also need a cease fire that applies to all battles except against forces of the Islamic State. However, Haftar hopes to gain western support for what he calls a battle against terrorism, but as the bombing of Tripoli indicates he considers all those opposed to him as terrorists. Neither government recognizes the others' legitimacy and the two sides have not yet directly talked to the other but only with the UN officials. Even if there should be a political agreement, it is not clear that the armed forces associated with the two sides would implement any agreement. Haftar has shown his contempt for the whole dialogue process and aims to retake Tripoli by force if necessary:"..probably in agreement with his sweepingly anti-Islamist friends in Egypt, Haftar told The New Yorker that he would retake Tripoli from Libya Dawn militarily. Regarding dialogue with the GNC/LD, Haftar declared: “There will be no dialogue with terrorism,” asserting that Libya had to be “purified.”"

Islamic State militants raid oil fields south of Sirte in Libya

Militants reportedly associated with the Islamic State(IS) attacked and seized two oil fields in central Libya south of the city of Sirte where IS appears to be in control.

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Forces who were guarding the Bahi and Mabruk sites ran out of ammunition and were forced to retreat. According to one report, the fighters came from Sirte. The sites attacked are part of the al-Dhara oil field. The group blew up residential and administrative buildings before they retreated according to Mashallah al-Zewi, who is oil minister in the Tripoli government. The area is controlled by that government rather than the internationally-recognized government in Tobruk. The Islamic State fights against both governments. Al-Zewi said:"They surrounded the site from three different directions, and when guards ran out of ammunition, they stormed the place, looted everything and then bombed the buildings, leaving them in ruins."Nevertheless, all employees, including foreign workers, were evacuated safely.The oil field is one of the oldest in Libya and has been in production since 1962. Forces from the Tripoli government were able to retake the sites.

The same militant group is thought to have attacked the al-Mabrouk field in February. That attack killed ten guards and resulted in seven foreigners being abducted including three Filipinos. The Islamic State in Libya controls the eastern city of Derna and now seems to control the city of Sirte as well in an area under the control of the Tripoli government. The group uses dramatic actions to gain attention. After the group beheaded 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians, Egypt launched airstrikes on the city of Derna provoking deadly suicide attacks in a nearby town in revenge. Derna is in the area nominally under control of the Tobruk-based internationally-recognized government. The Tobruk government with CIA-linked General Khalifa Haftar as head of the army is confined mainly to the east of Libya although Haftar has some allies, the Zintan brigades in the west as well. The Tripoli government has also been attacked by the Islamist militants and they launched an attack on a luxury hotel in Tripoli. Tripoli denies that the group that attacked the oil fields was associated with the Islamic State according to a CBS news report.

The UN-brokered peace talks and dialogue designed to find a political solution to the conflict between the two rival government restarted in Rabat Morocco as shown on the appended video.The video notes that the Tripoli government is the one recognized by the Libyan Supreme Constitutional Court as the legitimate one, a fact rarely mentioned in most reports. There are more sessions planned in Algeria and Brussels next week. Talks have been ongoing for some time but in earlier talks the Tripoli government had no representatives present nor did their major militia Libya Dawn. This time they have. The Tobruk government dispatched planes to bomb a Tripoli airport just hours after the talks began. However, the Tobruk government later agreed to halt the airstrikes for three days to help the talks. The talks are aimed at forming a unity government acceptable to both sides and also to halt clashes between the two groups. UN envoy Bernardino Leon said to reporters after the talks: "There is a sense, of, if it's not optimism, at least a sense that it is possible to make a deal, and that is something very important because in the last months, this was not the case," Neither group recognizes the legitimacy of the other and so the UN mediators meet with each group separately during negotiations.

The Tobruk government meanwhile is pressing demands to be allowed to build up its airforce and receive further arms despite the continuing arms embargo. The government describes its opponents in the Tripoli government and their allied militias as terrorists. Haftar and the Tobruk government have the support of Egypt. Many airstrikes by the Tobruk government have been against militia associated with the Tripoli government and have nothing to do with the Islamic State, although they too have been attacked in Derna.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/islamic-state-fighters-attack-oil-field-in-libya/article/427668#ixzz3TqfZYqj9