Italy will host Palermo conference on Libya Nov. 12-13, calling on Libyan rival parties to come together in an attempt to hold presidential elections.
The initiative comes after the Paris conference failed to resolve the fragmentation in Libya’s political scene.
Italy confirmed that the chairman of the House of Representatives (HoR) Aguila Saleh, General Commander of Libyan National Army Khalifa Haftar, Chairman of the High Council Khaled al-Mashri and Chairman of the Presidency Council Faiez Sarraj will attend the conference.
Sarraj and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte discussed on Friday the arrangements of the conference, during which Sarraj called on the international and regional community to support Libya in order to build a democratic civilian state based on constitutional rule and elections.
Italy expects that Russian President Vladimir Putin, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron will attend the conference, although they have not confirmed.
Previously, Libyan rival factions gathered in May at Paris Conference to agree to a political roadmap for the war-struck country to hold presidential and parliamentary elections before the end of 2018.
During the conference, the factions reached several agreements on a roadmap leading to parliamentary and presidential elections on Dec. 10.
However, none of these agreements have been put into action as the Libyan leaders declined to sign a closing declaration outlining their commitments at the conference, including laying the groundwork for the vote with drafting new electoral laws and establishing a “constitutional basis” by mid-September.
Libyan crisis
Since Muammar Gaddafi’s ouster in 2011, Libya has spiraled into civil war between its political parties competing for the power and divisions inside its army.
There have been two major factions on the ground since 2014; one led by Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army, who now controls the eastern side of Libya in cooperation with the government of the House of Representatives (HoR), also known as the Tobruk government.
The other is led by Faiez Sarraj, head of the UN-backed Libyan Government of National Accord of the General National Congress (GNC).
Meanwhile, the Islamic State (IS) and other terrorist groups have taken advantage of the conflict and established a foothold in the country, posing threats to Libya’s neighbors.
To put an end to the civil war and to establish a national unity government, Skhirat agreement was signed in December 2016 between the political factions involved in the conflict under the supervision of UN envoy Martin Kobler in the city of Skhirat, Morocco.
However, the agreement failed to achieve its purpose because it lacked consensus between the two parties, as it only recognized the GNA led by Sarraj.
In December 2017, Haftar declared the expiry of the agreement, refusing to recognize Sarraj’s government.
“The validity of the so-called political agreement – and all the bodies emanating from it – has expired,” the Field Marshal said.
He added that the HoR government in the east will not submit to any party unless its gains “legitimate power.”
Hence, Egypt held several meetings with Libyan political factions to resolve the crisis and amend the agreement, most recently, the 7th round of negotiations in Cairo that produced the unifying draft.
