UN Special Envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Berlin, January 19, 2020. - Axel Schmidt / AP / SIPA

The main countries affected by the conflict in Libya promised Sunday to respect an arms embargo and not to interfere in its internal affairs, in an attempt to restore peace in this country torn by civil war.

However, the consequences of this commitment made at an international summit in Berlin on the ground, where there is a truce of precarious fighting between the two camps, remain uncertain: the two direct rivals, Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of the Government of The national union (GNA) recognized by the UN in Tripoli, and its rival who controls the Libyan east Khalifa Haftar, refused to meet at the conference under the aegis of the UN.

Respect the embargo on arms deliveries

Main advance of the Berlin meeting, the leaders of eleven countries, starting with Russia and Turkey which play a key role in Libya, underlined in a joint declaration "that there is no military solution to the conflict, "said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. "All participants have committed to renounce interference in the armed conflict or the internal affairs of Libya," said Antonio Guterres, while Turkey militarily supports the GNA and Russia, despite its denials, is suspected of '' support Marshal Haftar, alongside Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The participants also promised to finally respect the embargo on arms deliveries to Libya, decreed by the UN in 2011 but largely remained a dead letter. Since the resumption of fighting between rival camps in Libya in April 2019, more than 280 civilians and 2,000 combatants have been killed and, according to the UN, more than 170,000 inhabitants have been displaced. The country is in chaos and plagued by violence and power struggles since the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

French Head of State Emmanuel Macron, suspected by his European allies of standing apart by supporting Marshal Haftar, asked him to stop sending Syrian pro-Turkish militiamen and Turkish soldiers to support the GNA .

Transforming the lull into a permanent ceasefire

The UN hopes above all that this conference will reinforce the truce which entered into force on January 12 on the initiative of Russia and Turkey. A meeting between military representatives of the two camps should be able to be held "in the coming days" according to the UN to transform this lull into a "permanent" cease-fire, as the participants in the Berlin summit called for it . US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke of "progress" made in Berlin toward "a complete cease-fire," even "if there are questions left" about the ability of the international community to verify its reality. For Emadeddin Badi, expert at the Middle East Institute, the outcome of the summit is rather "disappointing", given "the importance of the leaders" present.

So far, the Libyan truce has been more or less respected between the two camps at the gates of the capital. Skirmishes are reported almost daily, including the day of the summit south of Tripoli. Camp Haftar also blocked exports of Libyan oil, the country's only real source of income, on the eve of the Berlin summit.

In this context, the head of the GNA on Sunday asked for the sending to his country of an "international military force" under the aegis of the UN. Its mission would be to "protect the civilian population," he said, echoing similar remarks this week from the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell. Several leaders, including heads of Italian and British governments, said they were open on Sunday to the idea of ​​sending an international mission, or even a force, to help guarantee a cease-fire once that it will have been approved between the two camps.

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