Friday, October 23, 2020

Meanwhile in Libya

Rival forces in Libya have agreed a permanent nationwide ceasefire including the departure of all foreign fighters and mercenaries from the country for a minimum of three months.

[...]

[Acting head of the United Nations mission in Libya, Stephanie] Williams said the aim now was to reintegrate the armed forces into a single body, and that this would start with the categorisation and identification of all armed units, whether integrated or not within the main forces on either side.

[...]

The ceasefire includes the full opening of land and air routes, efforts to curb hate speech, an exchange of prisoners and plans to reconstruct the Petroleum Facilities Guard, an oil company and militia body linked to the eastern warlord General Khalifa Haftar that is seen as a threat to the stable flow of oil from Libya.

Although previous ceasefires have been agreed and broken in Libya with frequency, Williams cited the seniority of the military officers singing the agreement.

[...]

The ceasefire also opens the way for political talks between the parties on future power-sharing arrangements, as well as the future of sovereign institutions including the Central Bank of Libya and Libyan Investment Authority. One cause of the on-off civil war since 2011 has been disputes over the distribution of oil revenues between west and east of the country, and the role of the state institutions.

[...]

Many oilfields have been shut for a year, depriving the Libyan treasury of billions of dollars in revenue. But with the projected further openings, the country’s production could now reach 1m bpd.

The surprisingly high level of progress in Geneva means the focus now shifts to whether the external actors will end the supply of arms to the warring factions, and agree to withdraw their troops.

  Guardian
Fat chance.
Turkey has sent as many as 4,000 Syrian mercenaries to support the UN-recognised government in Tripoli headed by the prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj. Mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary organisation, have supported Haftar, and a steady flow of weaponry has been sent by the United Arab Emirates in blatant breach of the UN arms embargo.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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