(24 Nov 2020) LEAD IN:
Analyst says that participants in the ongoing United Nations-led talks to form a unity government in Libya are skeptical that they'll be able to reach an agreement.
STORY-LINE:
An analyst specializing in Libyan affairs says that there remain obstacles to forming an interim unity government that would lead the country until elections are held late next year.
Claudia Gazzini, consulting analyst for Libya at the International Crisis Group, says that participants in the ongoing United Nations-led talks are skeptical that they'll be able to reach an agreement.
Libya's rivals started a second round of talks Monday to devise a mechanism to choose a transitional government that would lead the conflict-stricken country to elections, the United Nations said.
U.N. acting envoy for Libya Stephanie Williams headed the online meeting of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum a week after the first round of the talks in Tunisia failed to name an executive authority.
The 75-member forum reached an agreement to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on Dec. 24, 2021.
Libya is split between a U.N.-supported government in the capital, Tripoli, and rival authorities based in the east.
The two sides are backed by an array of local militias, as well as regional and foreign powers.
Gazzini says that current players in Libya's conflict, such as Prime Minister for the UN-backed Tripoli government Fayez Sarraj and military commander Khalifa Hifter, who leads the self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces in eastern Libya, could stand to lose power should a unity government be formed, if they are not represented.
"In theory, a government of national unity is something that those who are currently outside the political scene aspire to create because it creates an entry point into power, but of course it's threatening for those in power," she says.
The political forum was the latest effort to end the chaos that engulfed the oil-rich North African nation after the 2011 overthrow and killing of dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
The U.N. mission in Libya said last week it was investigating allegations of bribes paid to some participants in the forum to vote for certain names to be part of the transitional government.
The mission did not name anyone but vowed to impose international sanctions on anyone obstructing the talks.
The forum took place amid a heavy international push to reach a peaceful settlement to Libya's conflict.
Previous diplomatic initiatives have all collapsed.
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