Libyan peace process

[3] In July 2019, Ghassan Salamé, the head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), proposed a three-point peace plan, to consist of a ceasefire, an international meeting of implicated countries for enforcing the arms embargo and an internal Libyan conference[3] composed of economic, military and political "tracks".

[5] A conference between representatives of Mediterranean Basin powers implicated in the Libyan armed conflict as well as Algeria, the Republic of Congo and major world powers took place in Berlin on 19 January 2020,[6] declaring a 55-point list of Conclusions, creating a military 5+5 GNA+LNA followup committee, and an International Follow-up Committee to monitor progress in the peace process.

[18] After a warning one week earlier that the country was running out of money and had risked ceasing to be a functional state, Bernardino León urged at a ceremony in Morocco that the Libyans approve the fourth version of the proposal.

[28] On 29 July 2019, Ghassan Salamé, head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), proposed a three-point peace plan to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), which would "require consensus in [the UNSC] and amongst the Member States who exert influence on the ground" and require Libyans "to listen to their better angels" rather than "[fight] the wars of others and in so doing [destroy] their country.

"[29] Salamé resigned from his UNSMIL position in early March 2020, stating that the governments of countries involved in the Libyan conflict had failed to support the peace process, with numerous violations of the arms embargo.

Salamé described it as a "substantial reduction in violence along the main fronts in southern Tripoli and elsewhere" with "some violations" and that "broadly speaking, the truce held for the duration of the Eid festivities.

Russian president Vladimir Putin contacted United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egyptian leaders to pressure Haftar into accepting a ceasefire from the side of the LNA.

[29] On 4 September 2019, Salamé stated to the UNSC that he had visited several countries in the region with the aim of organising an international conference that would fulfil the second element of his peace plan.

"[43] At the fifth preparation meeting on 10 December 2019, two documents were "to a very large extent ready" to be proposed for signature by the political leaders expected to participate in the Berlin conference.

[6] An anti-Haftar protest of 150 people was held in Berlin near the conference venue with posters including "Haftar kills Libyan children".

[7] Point 5 of the document described the "sole objective" of the conference, termed the Berlin Process, as "assisting the United Nations in unifying the International Community in their support for a peaceful solution to the Libyan crisis" and committing the countries and international bodies present at the conference to support the 3-point Salamé peace plan.

[7] On 25 January, UNSMIL reported violations of the arms embargo, stating that during the previous ten days, "numerous cargo and other flights [had] been observed landing at Libyan airports in the western and eastern parts of the country providing the parties with advanced weapons, armoured vehicles, advisers and fighters.

According to the report, the United Arab Emirates and Russia were sent five cargo aircraft filled with weapons to Libya on 19 January 2020, the day of the Berlin conference.

[52] On 8 March 2021, the United Nations Security Council released a report in which the Panel of Experts on Libya said that the 2011 arms embargo remain “totally ineffective”.

In a 550-page report, the body listed several illicit shipments, including transport aircraft, drones, surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles, and others by countries like Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Turkey, and others.

Besides, the deployment of private mercenaries like the Russian Wagner group and non-state actors like the Blackwater founder Erik Prince, which were both backed by the UAE.

[53] [54] [55] The third point of the Salamé three-point peace plan is intra-Libyan negotiations without external interference[29] along economic, military and political tracks in parallel.

[9] According to The Libya Observer, groups called the Tripolitanian Society and the National Assembly for Seventeenth February Revolutionaries objected to hosting any intra-Libyan talks in Cairo because of Egypt's role in supporting the LNA.

[60] At the 9–10 February Cairo meeting, the participants agreed on the terms of reference defining a Libyan Expert Economic Commission and its operations.

The Commission aims to have three working groups for "revenue management and distribution", transparency, decentralisation, the Libyan banking crisis, and reconstruction and development.

[57] As of 25 February 2020[update], the head of GNA's five members of the 5+5 Libyan Joint Military Commission (JMC) is Ahmed Abu Shahma.

[63] The 5+5 committee, formally named the 5+5 Libyan Joint Military Commission, started meeting in Geneva on 3 February in talks facilitated by Salamé.

[60] The result of the early February meeting from the two sides was consensus on several principles, including the defence of Libyan territory, Libyan independence from international interference, opposition to "UN-identified terrorist groups (al-Qaeda, ISIS, Ansar al-Sharia)", and support for an existing UNSMIL committee's role in exchanges of prisoners and the returns of mortal remains.

The political track negotiations would be open to "all issues", including the 2017 draft Libyan constitution, electoral laws and dates and "maybe" an agreement on holding elections in a nationally unified way.

[12] Negotiations continued during 7–9 September in Montreux among unnamed "key Libyan stakeholders", with the support of UNSMIL and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.

The participants agreed on an 18-month time scale for holding parliamentary and presidential elections, on implementing an amnesty to be approved by the parliament, on supporting the return of internally displaced people and the diaspora, and on moving several government functions to Sirte.

According to Libyan media, roles under debate included the heads of the central bank, of the National Oil Corporation and of the armed forces.

[14] The three-track intra-Libyan peace process continued in late 2020, chaired by Stephanie Williams of UNSMIL, following the August ceasefire and September Montreux meeting,[15] with the political track evolving into the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum,[16] and the military track leading to a 24 October agreement on a permanent ceasefire.

Discussion topics included an "audit of the two branches of the Central Bank of Libya" and the setting of a precedent for further online meetings.

[71] In January 2021, the LPDF decided with a 73% majority on a procedure for selecting a unitary executive for the positions in the Presidency Council and for the prime ministership[72][73] that would lead to national elections proposed for 24 December 2021.