A long-awaited and yet unexpected event has happened this week.

The East and West of Libya came to an agreement, created a common government, elected a prime minister and a presidential council, in short, took a big step towards uniting the country that was torn to pieces ten years ago as a result of NATO aggression and the overthrow of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

Will they really succeed in uniting the country?

After all, the current split is far from the first.

For the first time, the West and East of Libya parted 1600 years ago.

The West, or Tripolitania, was under the rule of Rome, the East, or Cyrenaica, was at the hand of Constantinople.

Sirte became the border between the Western and Eastern parts of the Roman Empire.

And today, 16 centuries later, Sirte is still the border, Rome still supports Tripoli, and Egypt still supports Cyrenaica.

Gaddafi stripped Benghazi of its capital status, and it was in Benghazi that the rebellion against Gaddafi began, which ended in his fall.

This historical excursion was made in order to remind: the confrontation between Tripoli and Benghazi has ancient roots. 

In December 2020, the process of Libya's unification got under way.

There were two reasons for this.

Both sides realized that it was not possible to defeat the enemy, it was necessary to negotiate.

This is what Russia, the cat Leopold of the Middle East, initially believed, urging everyone to live together.

The second reason was that the oil revenues had to be divided.

They can be significant: Libya was a major oil producer under Gaddafi and not everything was rusted or plundered.

Before that, there were many attempts to reconcile the parties and unite the country, but all ended in failure.

This time the puzzle began to take shape.

The parliament elected a prime minister - the billionaire from Misrata, that is, from the West, Abdel Hamid Mohammed Dbeiba became him.

The UN representative, however, accused him of buying the votes of the parliamentarians who supported him, but the Libyans dismissed these accusations.

Approved by the government.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs became a woman - lawyer Najla al-Mangush, originally from Benghazi.

She has spent the past ten years in the United States, where she has been working on human rights.

At the head of the presidential council was a resident of Benghazi, Muhammad Younes Menfi.

More importantly, the current Libyan leaders supported the new government.

Last year, Haftar (from Benghazi) tried to take Tripoli and unite the country by force, but failed, despite numerous attempts.

Now he has resigned himself and supported the new government.

But the forces of Sarraj could not defeat Haftar, and they could not take Sirte (halfway between Tripoli and Benghazi).

Now Al-Sarraj, the Tripoli-based prime minister, has resigned and backed his successor.

How strong it is is difficult to say.

The armies of the East and West are not yet united; there are many foreign military personnel in the country.

Turkey is not going to withdraw its forces from Tripoli.

Also operating in Libya are American mercenaries from the Blackwater company under the command of Prince, who last year tried to support Haftar, but were thoroughly beaten by the Turks.

The new government called for the withdrawal of all foreign troops and mercenaries, but did not set a timetable.

“There is no need to demand the impossible,” the new prime minister said wisely. 

Turkey is cautiously supporting the new government.

For Erdogan, Libya is extremely important: the agreement on the division of the shelf, which he concluded with former Prime Minister Sarraj, gave Turkey the right to veto any pipeline in the Eastern Mediterranean, in particular the pipeline from Israel through Cyprus and Greece, which was discussed.

Russia is neutral in this dispute: it is that Israel and Greece, that Turkey and Libya are alike.

The United States sets itself the main goal of ousting Russia from Libya and from everywhere, so the Americans welcomed the call for the withdrawal of foreign troops.

For Europeans, the most important thing is to stop the flow of refugees from Africa through Libya to Europe.

It is important for Italians to maintain a special relationship with their former colony.  

Russia welcomed the new government.

Indeed, without the active assistance of Russia, there would be no reconciliation, and oil would not have flowed into the ports.

Although Russia supported the East more, it did not quarrel with the West either.

There are no Russian troops in Libya.

They talk about "Russian mercenaries", but this is more of a figure of speech, like "Russian hackers".

Of course, Russia would not mind getting an air force base and a port in Libya, but not at any cost.

Still, Libya is far away, and such a serious presence would be worth a lot.

As we know from experience, President Putin is primarily trying to avoid overstretching the forces of Russia, and Libya would require a lot of forces.

Therefore, one must think that Russia's presence in Libya will remain moderate.

Putin is trying to negotiate with Turkey on Libya, as he did on Syria.

And here a stable, solid, united government of Libya may be useful for Russian interests as well.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.