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By Libya Herald staff.
Cairo, 3 December 2014:
Western governments plus the EU and the UN have demanded an immediate end to all . . .[restrict]hostilities in Libya “including air strikes” ahead of a planned follow-up to the Ghadames dialogue process. And in a sign that their patience with Libya is wearing thin, they have threatened action against any major Libya political figure who refuses to take part in UN-led dialogue and efforts to appoint a government of national unity.
Meeting in Brussels today to assess the current situation in Libya on the sidelines of the US-organised anti-Daesh summit, foreign ministers from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, plus the US Secretary of State, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs expressed “grave concern” about the situation in Libya which, they said, was deteriorating.
A new round of talks being organised by UNSMIL and set to take place on 9 December was, they said, “the most viable path” for Libya to chart its own future”. Unlike the first round of talks (known as Ghadames I) which involved only attending and boycotting members of the House of Representatives, this second round (“Ghadames II”) has been broadened out to comprise key players on both sides of the Libyan divide, although not Ansar Al-Sharia.
None of the Libyan combatants could set conditions for taking part, the allies insisted, and if anyone refused to turn up , they added, they would “consider additional measures to protect Libya’s unity, stability and prosperity, and to counter expanding terrorist threats to Libya and the region”.
The wording is a blunt threat to impose sanctions on such individuals.
The insistence on no preconditions is meanwhile seen as a thinly veiled warming to the Thinni government which a week ago said that it would not stop military action against Libya Dawn until the latter recognised its legitimacy and that of the House of Representatives and withdrew from Tripoli. Three days ago, Thinni endorsed Sudan’s plans to undertake a dialogue between the two sides, but again said conditions had to be met first – without, however, stating what those conditions might be. [/restrict]
