By Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli, 14 April 2015:
Two days of UNSMIL-mediated talks between political parties and activists in Algiers ended this evening . . .[restrict]with everyone agreeing on everything except how to bring about a peace agreement.
But this second political meeting was part of UNSMIL’s broader confidence-building programme which has involved taking municipal leaders to Brussels for talks and is scheduled to bring tribal elders together in Egypt.
The real work on the “Draft Agreement on the Political Transition in Libya” restarts on Thursday in Skhirat, where delegations from the House of Representatives and the revived rump of the General National Congress have their third meeting in the Moroccan town, as part of the dialogue which began in Ghadames last September.
UNSMIL chief Bernardino Leon hailed the Algiers talks as a “great success. The Libyan parties have succeeded in finding a common position on most of the points of a draft accord presented by the United Nations” he said.
He also welcomed suggestions that had been made for changes to the accord but he did not spell out what those had been.
Yesterday the UN Security Council expressed its “impatience” as it once again urged all parties in the conflict to come up with agreement. It also repeated its warning, echoed earlier in the day by EU foreign ministers, that it would sanction those who were deemed to be obstructing the peace process by continuing the violence.
Speaking during his visit to Jordan where he has had talks with and received backing from King Abdullah and senior military chiefs, armed forces commander-in-chief Khalifa Hafter today said he backed the dialogue but had little hope of a successful outcome. He also said that the army had no intention of stopping its campaign against “terrorists”. In the end, he said, he feared that the only solution would be military.
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