Libya: Rival Leaders in Paris to Meet for First Time since May

Local Editor

Libya’s two main rival leaders met on Tuesday for the first time in more than five months as Italy hosted a conference seeking to reconcile the country’s rulers a week after the United Nations shelved plans for an election next month.

Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj, whose weak but internationally recognized government is based in western Libya, met the commander who rules most of the east, Khalifa Haftar, in Palermo, Sicily.

Despite Haftar having said he would not participate in the conference, photos released by the Italian government showed him with Serraj and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte embracing and smiling in a three-way handshake.

More than seven years after long-serving dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled by Western-backed rebels with NATO air support, no central authority has asserted control over the country and armed groups control the streets.

The United Nations blamed a spike in violence for its decision to drop plans to hold an election next month. It still aims for a vote next year, but says Libyans should first decide what sort of election they want.

Italy, the former colonial power which has large oil and gas interests in Libya and has been working to halt people-smuggling from the Libyan coast across the Mediterranean, had called the summit in a bid to bring together Libya’s competing factions.

Haftar, a former officer in Gaddafi’s military who lived for years in exile in the United States, has emerged as the leader of the most powerful armed faction, having defeated Islamist militants in the east with support from Egypt and Arab states.

Serraj heads the government in the west, which has struggled to exert control beyond the capital Tripoli.

Rival parliaments in the east and west also claim legitimacy as the legislature for the entire country.

Source: Reuters, Edited by website team