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Williams Urges Need to Resolve 'Crisis of Legitimacy' in Libya

Williams convenes a consultative session of the LPDF women's bloc. (Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General via Twitter)
Williams convenes a consultative session of the LPDF women's bloc. (Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General via Twitter)
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Williams Urges Need to Resolve 'Crisis of Legitimacy' in Libya

Williams convenes a consultative session of the LPDF women's bloc. (Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General via Twitter)
Williams convenes a consultative session of the LPDF women's bloc. (Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General via Twitter)

Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General (SASG) for Libya, Stephanie Williams reiterated the need to "respect the will of the 2.5 million Libyans" who registered to vote in the delayed elections.

Williams convened in Tripoli on Sunday a consultative session of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) women's bloc in person and virtually to discuss the challenges facing the electoral process following the High National Election Commission's (HNEC) declaration of force majeure.

"As always, I appreciated the constructive, principled and thoughtful recommendations provided by the women's bloc which previously played a leading role in the LPDF deliberations," she tweeted.

"I recalled the timeline laid out in the LPDF roadmap which extends until June of this year, as the UNSC-endorsed framework for the comprehensive solution to end Libya's long transitional period," she added.

"I stressed the need to respect the will of the 2.5 million Libyans who collected their voter registrations cards and called for urgent and serious efforts to address the crisis of legitimacy facing Libya's national institutions," she stressed.

Presidential and parliamentary elections were set for December 2020, but they were postponed over what the HNEC said were inadequacies in the electoral legislation and the judicial appeals process.

The planned vote was the lynchpin of international peace efforts, and major regional and international powers had for months pushed for it to take place as scheduled.

But many inside and outside Libya doubted the election would proceed as planned. Some warned that holding the vote could destabilize the country, given the continued polarization.

An internationally brokered October 2020 ceasefire has kept a relative peace since. But some its main provisions — the withdrawal of all foreign forces and mercenaries within three months and adherence to a UN arms embargo — have not been met.

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Palestinians Receptive to Lebanon’s Call to Limit Possession of Weapons in Refugee Camps

The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee meets at the government headquarters. (Dialogue committee)
The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee meets at the government headquarters. (Dialogue committee)
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Palestinians Receptive to Lebanon’s Call to Limit Possession of Weapons in Refugee Camps

The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee meets at the government headquarters. (Dialogue committee)
The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee meets at the government headquarters. (Dialogue committee)

Lebanon has started to exert serious efforts to restrict the possession of weapons inside Palestinian refugee camps in the country in line with President Joseph Aoun’s inaugural speech.

The president had demanded that the possession of weapons in the country and the camps be limited to the state.

The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee met at the government headquarters in Beirut three days ago to discuss the issue.

All Palestinian factions attended the meeting, and the gatherers agreed to “completely” resolve the Palestinian possession of arms outside the camps. They also agreed to outline how to restrict weapons inside the camps in line with the president’s speech.

The Lebanese state has yet to come up with the mechanism to confiscate the weapons inside the camps.

A Lebanese security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the arms will be tackled through a political approach drawn up by the government. “It will be carried out by the army with the security agencies and in coordination with the Palestinian factions in the camp, led by the Fatah movement, which is the official representative of the Palestinian people,” it added.

The Palestinians have expressed their “complete understanding” of the issue, it remarked.

The laying down of weapons by Palestinian factions is a step towards all illegal weapons throughout the country being turned over to the Lebanese state, it went on to say.

“There are no longer any excuses for weapons to remain in possession of any organization,” stressed the source.

Lebanese groups will be demanded to lay down their arms after the Palestinian ones do, it added.

In a first, the Palestinian factions have been very receptive to a Lebanese head of state’s demand to cooperate in limiting the possession of weapons in the refugee camps.

Member of the Palestinian National and Central Councils Haitham Zaiter said that the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) recognizes that the camps are part of Lebanese territories, so they come under the authority of the state and its laws.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that “complete coordination” is ongoing between the Lebanese security agencies and PLO inside the camps where several wanted Lebanese and Palestinian suspects and others from other nationalities have been turned over to the authorities.

The suspects had sought refuge in the camps to avoid justice in the crimes they have committed, he acknowledged.

“The PLO is the sole representative of the Palestinian people inside Palestine and in the diaspora,” he stated.

Moreover, Zaiter explained that Palestinian weapons in Lebanon are either carried by the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC) outside the camps or by non-partisan individuals inside the camps.

The PFLP-GC laid down its weapons as soon as the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad collapsed in December.

Heavy weapons inside the camps had been previously brought in with the aim to undermine the PLO, he added.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas “has constantly called for coordination with Lebanese authorities to limit the possession of these weapons,” Zaiter said.