The newly appointed SRSG and UNSMIL head, Hanna Tetteh, arrived in Tripoli yesterday to assume her post. Upon her arrival, she issued an official statement that looked forward positively to solving Libya’s 14-year political impasse.
Tetteh’s Tripoli arrival comes a day after UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, made her remarks to the Security Council on the latest situation in Libya. In her remarks, DiCarlo said ‘‘There is an urgent need for progress in Libya.’’
In her Tripoli arrival statement, Tetteh referred to ‘‘building on the work that my predecessors and colleagues in UNSMIL have undertaken’’.
Meanwhile, in response to DiCarlo’s remarks to the Security Council on the situation in Libya on Wednesday, Taher Al-Sunni, Libya’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, posed three pertinent questions about the role of the UN in Libya since 2011.
10 UN Libya envoys in 14 years – Libya still in a political quagmire
Al-Sunni said ten UN envoys to Libya have been appointed by the Security Council in 14 years, which he said was a record number that requires reflection.
He then went on to ask: ‘‘The question here is: Was the problem with the envoys? Or with the UN’s working mechanism? Or with the interventions and imposition of solutions and external agendas?”
In her arrival statement, Tetteh said she would be actively engaging with all Libyans – across all spectrums – and that she will seek their views, and their ideas, understand their fears, lift their voices and amplify their hopes for the future. She also said she will leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of peace and stability for Libya and the Libyan people.
On the other hand, she said she will also work with regional and international actors to obtain their support in order that collective efforts are mobilised to empower Libyan actors to preserve national unity, territorial integrity, and sovereignty.
She then added that she will commit to working with the people of Libya and the international community to achieve that goal.
When will the UN try something new?
The implication of Ambassador Al-Sunni’s questions is that, can the UN continue, after 14 years, to use the same failed formula or formulae in Libya? If we are to consider the holding of constitution-based Libyan elections as a key performance indicator of UNSMIL success, how long must the UN’s Libyan experiment continue to fail before the UN decides it must try something different?
New carrots and sticks?
When will the UN start thinking and acting outside the box to solve the Libya problem? What new ideas, carrots and sticks, does Tetteh have in her toolbox to solve the militia problem and the status quo stakeholders who are resisting change?
What to do with the entrenched status quo forces?
What can Tetteh do to incentivise House of Representatives (HoR) Speaker, Ageela Saleh, his rump (20 to 50 out of the elected 200) HoR members, Khalifa Hafter and his sons, and the entrenched militias to allow real elections to go ahead – and respect their results. What new incentives and sticks does she have to persuade them to elect themselves out of their current positions?
Conflicting role of the international community in Libya
On the other hand, and as Ambassador Al-Sunni has alluded to, the various states interfering in Libya’s affairs have diametrically opposing interests.
It is clear from the last 14 years that some of Libya’s non-democratic neighbouring, regional or superpower states do not want a successful democracy in Libya. A successful democratic Libya would set a neighbouring, regional and international precedent and may weaken them or even result in calls for democracy, or more democracy, in their own countries.
Can Tetteh rely on dishonest international partners?
Then, Ambassador Al-Sunni’s question of ‘‘the interventions and imposition of solutions and external agendas?” by foreign states must be considered valid. How can states who have ulterior motives and agendas be relied upon to end Libya’s political impasse? What is their national interest in having a successful democracy in Libya?
And if so, how can Tetteh rely on them as honest partners who are not simply postering in support of democracy – while working subversively to undermine it? Can she rely on them to provide carrots and sticks – genuine pressure – to bear upon the entrenched stakeholders?
And from a broader perspective, if UN policy on Libya is a compromise policy made up of the conflicting interests of its member states, can the UN ever solve the Libya problem?
Tetteh set up to fail?
We must ask, and Tetteh must ask herself: Has she been set up by the international community to fail? Where or how can she succeed if all her 10 predecessors have failed?
In her official arrival speech, Tetteh said ‘‘Together with my colleagues in UNSMIL, we will seek (Libyan’s) views, and their ideas, understand their fears, lift their voices and amplify their hopes for the future.’’
As one of those Libyans, and 14 years and 10 SGSR and UNSMIL heads on from the 2011 revolution that ended the Qaddafi regime, these are some of my views, ideas, and fears about yet another stint by yet another SGSR UNSMIL head.
I look forward to Tetteh’s new, outside the box, solutions to Libya’s 14-year impasse.
New UNSMIL head and SRSG Hanna Tetteh arrives in Tripoli today
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