The conclusion of the Sirte meetings: agreed to take out the mercenaries

Without reaching any radical solution, the meetings of the “5 + 5” Joint Military Committee, which includes representatives of the “National Accord” government and the forces of retired Major General Khalifa Haftar, concluded yesterday, after their first meeting in Sirte. It was agreed to conclude the meetings as soon as possible, especially in the presence of many conflictive points that have not yet been resolved, as expressed in the final communiqué issued by the meetings sponsored by the United Nations.

In principle, an agreement was reached to remove all the mercenaries and foreign fighters from the cities and towns, and to reunite them in Tripoli and Benghazi in preparation for their departure from Libyan lands at a later stage, with the immediate start of the cleansing. from the coastal highway of heavy military vehicles, allowing the passage of citizens and their movement. The two delegations also agreed to initiate the mine and war remnants clearance process in cooperation with the United Nations, identify remote sites for military vehicles, and entrust the task of securing roads to the Security Arrangements Committee after all forces have been have gone, as long as the insurance framework crystallizes in the next meetings, which are expected to resume next week. The greatest thanks, after the participants in the meetings returned to their leaders and discussed the details of what was achieved with them.
A state of mutual suspicion prevails among the Al-Wefaq forces, who fear that the withdrawal is a maneuver by Haftar’s forces to attack the capital, while the latter fear that the former will attack the Sirte-Youfra area if they withdraw. all heavy military forces and vehicles. However, the United Nations, as custodian of the agreement, seeks to build trust between the two parties and provide guarantees for each of them. Despite the slim possibilities of violating international agreements for various reasons, notably the exhaustion of the two parties to the conflict and the presence of a desire for calm, the real crisis facing military negotiations is the anticipation of what It is happening in Tunisia during the meetings of the “political forum”, which take place in parallel amid the desire of all parties to achieve a balance between what emerges from the two meetings, so that no more concessions are made without the expected positive results.
In Tunisia, the dialogue sessions were divided into many sticking points, even with the appointment of the speaker of the parliament meeting in Tobruk, Aqila Saleh, to be the head of the new government, or Fathi Bashagha or even Ahmed Maitiq, but the biggest crisis lies in some of the details related to the powers of the “Presidential Council”, which is supposed to rule during the transition period for a period of 18 months, especially in regard to the agreements signed between Turkey and the government of Fayez al -Sarraj. Al-Wefaq seeks to preserve these agreements by refusing to give the Presidential Council the right to consider them, which implies the continuation of military cooperation between the new government and Turkey, which is rejected by Haftar’s forces and considers it an obstacle to unification. of the security institutions in Libya.
Despite the consensus enjoyed by a large part of the forum’s personalities from the point of view of the different parties in conflict, there are other pending points related to the authority that will be in the hands of the transitional government, and its capacity to face objections. expected in the street, at a time when Al-Sarraj continues the meetings. The 24 hours, with their eagerness to stay away from the scene, in preparation for a better chance in the elections that will be held in the transition period. The clause contained in the memorandum of powers of the new “Presidential Council” corresponds to the request of the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to maintain the agreements he signed with Sarraj with any future government. It is worth mentioning here that these agreements included the demarcation of maritime borders in a way that raises controversy with the Mediterranean countries, in addition to the military cooperation that Egypt and the Gulf states object to. This item is part of a group of other items that Al-Wefaq sees as concessions, bearing in mind that the next few days are supposed to witness an arrangement of controversial items in general, based on international mediation that will intervene to close the gap in views and ensure the launch of the new transition phase no later than January / January 2021.

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