GENEVA – Libya’s two main warring factions agreed on a ceasefire on Friday, hoping Russia, Turkey and other regional powers would end years of bloody unrest in the military.
The two sides signed the agreement at the United Nations in Geneva at the end of a week-long meeting of representatives of the internationally recognized government, the National Accord, based in the capital Tripoli, and the self-styled Libyan national army led by Khalifa Hifter and based in the east of the country.
The two sides agreed to a full, nationwide and permanent agreement with immediate effect, with Stephanie Williams, acting UN special envoy, presiding over the latest talks. He said he called on the frontline forces to return to their bases and withdraw all foreign troops and mercenaries within three months, a process that would be overseen by the United Nations.
“God willing, all that is the key to peace and security in Libya,” Colonel Ali Abushma, head of the government delegation, said at the signing ceremony. “We’ve had enough pain, enough blood, enough blood.”
Libya has a long history of failed peace initiatives and the reaction of foreign sponsors who have led the long-running war on both sides of the conflict will be crucial to the success of the ceasefire. Ms. Williams said the agreement would be sent to the UN Security Council immediately, emphasizing the crucial importance of international support.
Former UN ambassador Gassan Salam resigned earlier this year, partly out of frustration over the international community’s failure to provide meaningful support for peace efforts in Libya.
Mr Salam has voiced his displeasure at some of Libya’s foreign countries, such as Russia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, for their interference in a meaningful way with the failures of Western countries such as the United States, France and Britain. interfere.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the agreement as a “fundamental step” towards ending the conflict.
“I congratulate the parties for putting the interests of their nation ahead of their differences,” he said.
Mr Guterres, who has called for a worldwide ceasefire to help end the Kovid-1 epidemic over the past seven months, said he hoped other militants in the Middle East, Afghanistan and more recently Armenia and Azerbaijan – would follow the same path. ” Will use the “inspiration of the Libyan agreement.”
The latest agreement comes four months after Mr Hifter’s forces were forced into abusive seclusion from locations around his capital, Tripoli, which they launched a rigorous, 15-month campaign to capture. Although the attack ended in failure, it further emboldened powerful foreign actors in the battle for control of the oil-rich North African nation.
Russia sent mercenaries and the UAE sent large quantities of weapons in support of Mr. Hefter. Turkey, on the other hand, intervened decisively by sending military advisers, drones and Syrian mercenaries, surrounded by all three governments.
For months, the two sides have been embroiled in tensions around Surat in central Libya, where the country’s longtime dictator, Colonel Muammar al-Quddafi, was born in 2011 and died violently. Surat is the gateway to the region known as oil. Crescent, where most of Libya’s oil is produced.
Mr Hifter halted most oil production in January in an effort to starve Tripoli government funds. But, amid widespread expectations of lifting the blockade, production has risen sharply in recent weeks, reaching 300,000 barrels a day.
Although Mr. Hifter has remained the leader of a powerful military coalition, his political strength has steadily declined since his troops were raised from Tripoli in June. On the volume of his home in eastern Libya, other powerful political players have emerged in recent months and some of Mr Hifter’s foreign allies, especially Egypt, have moved closer.
In his first visit since resigning as ambassador, Mr Salameh accused the UN Security Council of being “hypocritical”, saying most of its members had initially supported Mr Hifter’s attack on Tripoli and had actively stabilized his own peace efforts.
Mr Salam said he had been attacked “backwards” by the same countries in an interview with The Mediator Studio, a podcast of the Oslo Forum, an organization that promotes conflict mediation.
Ms. Williams called the deal a “moment in history” on Friday, praising the delegates’ courage, commitment and professionalism in drafting the deal.
He said it was also an exceptional example for Libyan politicians who now face the challenge of converting a ceasefire into a comprehensive political settlement in the negotiations, which opened in Tunis in early November.
The two sides on Wednesday agreed to reopen road and air links across the country.
Friday’s agreement is aimed at uniting security forces and setting speedy measures to disarm, disband and reorganize numerous armed groups that have been operating uncontrollably for years.
The two sides also agreed to take steps that would re-establish national control over key institutions such as oil facilities and the central bank, Mr Williams said.
Nick Cumming-Bruce from Geneva and Declan Walsh from Nairobi, Kenya.
