AU's role in finding a solution to Libyan crisis relaunched at G7 (News Analysis by Youssef Ba, PANA correspondent)
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) – The leaders of the G7, who wrapped up their meeting in the French city of Biarritz last Monday, have joined the United Nations, African Union and other organisatons in stating that "only a political solution can ensure stability in Libya".
This stance, is a shot in the arm of efforts by the UN and AU aimed at holding an inter-Libyan conference.
The G7 countries have given the AU the task of being the co-supervisor with the United Nations to organise a meeting between Libyans to find a resolution of the crisis in the North African country.
Last February, the AU unveiled a plan for the settlement of the crisis with an action plan including a reconciliation conference due for last July and elections for mid-October.
Now, the G7 has also called for an international conference that would bring together all regional stakeholders and actors of the Libyan crisis.
"We call for a well-prepared conference bringing together all regional stakeholders and actors concerned by the conflict," said the declaration adopted by the G7 leaders at the end of the summit.
The declaration sees two conferences: one that will be chaired by G7 and the other to be supervised by the AU and UN.
French president Emmanuel Macron announced that the preparations for that international conference are being carried out in Paris, without giving details on the date.
With this, the G7 only gave its blessings to the Action Plan of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Libya, Ghassan Salamé, which was announced in early August.
This focused on a humanitarian truce on the occasion of the Eid al-Adha celebrated on 11 August, and two meetings - one at the international level bringing together countries involved in the Libyan dossier and another one bringing together Libyans to complete the political process.
In early July, the AU reaffirmed its willingness to participate in the search for a solution of the Libyan crisis at the extraordinary summit held in July in the Nigerien capital, Niamey, to relaunch the African continental free-trade area.
Despite the refusal of Egypt, whose president Abdel Fattah al-Sissi is the AU chairman, to see the continental organisation seize the Libyan dossier, the AU Commission at the Niamey summit agreed to be more involved in the resolution of the crisis.
President al-Sissi did not attend the meeting in Niamey and was represented by his minister of foreign affairs, Sameh Chokri, an attitude that shows the interference of Egypt, allied with Marshall Khalifa Haftar, in the Libyan war, according to observers.
Further, he has not taken any step since he assumed the AU chairmanship to tackle the Libyan crisis.
The AU has also sought to create different means to resolve the problem.
Six of Libya’s neighbours - Algeria, Niger, Chad, Tunisia, Sudan and Egypt -have served as framework for dialogue on issues of security at the borders and cross-border crime, as well as the search for solution to the political crisis.
In addition to the AU also participates in the Quartet on Libya, composed by AU, UN, the Arab League and the European Union (EU), which helps as framework for reflection and search for a solution.
For several observers, the question that poses itself now is the outcomes expected from the two conferences, especially the efficiency of the decisions and their impacts.
The armed clashes that broke on 4 April near Tripoli when forces of the Libyan National Army based in the east and commanded by Marshall Khalifa Haftar attacked troops loyal to the internationally-recognised Government of National Accord chaired by Fayez al-Sarraj has been bloody and destructive.
The has left 1,200 dead, wounded 6,000 and displaced 120,000 who fled their homes located in the fighting zones, according to the UN organisations.
Come what may, the AU must maintain its determination to see to the peaceful resolution of the Libya crisis.
-0- PANA BY/BEH/MSA/MA 30Aug2019
