UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame said on Tuesday there was a “genuine will to start negotiating” between rival military factions as they began talks in Geneva aimed at securing a lasting ceasefire.
The talks in Geneva bring together five military officers from Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) and five from forces aligned with the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.
The UN-brokered talks are aimed at trust building and working out a monitoring mechanism for a ceasefire.
Salame said the two sides were aiming “to bridge the gaps in their views on how the lasting, sustainable ceasefire can be organized on the ground”.
“We started yesterday to discuss with them a long list of points on our agenda, starting on an attempt to transform the truce into a more solid one, less often violated by either side and also to transform that truce into a real agreement on a lasting ceasefire,” he said, according to Reuters.
One of the participants said that officials discussed on the sidelines of the talks efforts to bolster the ceasefire and uniting the Libyan military, a source told Asharq Al-Awsat. They also expressed rejection of the deployment of any foreign troops in Libya.
A source close to the talks told Asharq Al-Awsat that the LNA delegation demanded an end to Turkey’s military and security deployment in Tripoli. It also called on Ankara to pull out its mercenaries that it had sent to fight for the GNA.
Former Defense Minister Mohammed al-Bargathi told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Geneva talks were being held behind closed doors because the GNA delegation wants to avoid coming under pressure from militia leaders in Tripoli that want to see the talks fail.
“Personally, I don’t want an agreement to be reached before the militias are reined in and disarmed,” he added.
The military talks come two weeks after an international summit in Berlin that was focused on charting a path towards a political solution and enforcing a UN arms embargo that has been routinely violated.
There was an escalation in fighting late last year, and a truce brokered by Russia and Turkey from Jan. 12 has been repeatedly violated.
The United Nations says weapons and fighters have continued to enter Libya since the Berlin meeting.
The optimism in Geneva was quashed by developments on the ground where the LNA launched air raids against pro-GNA militias in the Abugrein town near Misrata.
LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari said the army was committed to the ceasefire in western Libya and that it was ready to retaliate to any violation at any moment.
He accused Turkey of sending some 6,000 mercenaries from Syria to Libya. Ankara was seeking to send a total of 18,000 mercenaries, he revealed.
Ten Syrian units are currently deployed in Tripoli, he added. They include Syrian, Iraqi, Libyan, African and foreign mercenaries, as well as Turkish officers.
The GNA paid a million dollars to each unit commander, Mismari said.
Moreover, he accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of supporting terrorism in Libya through setting up terrorist groups and security companies. One company has been transformed into a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood group aimed at carrying out terrorist attacks in Libya.
