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04 February 2020The two sides in Libya, at the negotiating table from yesterday in Geneva, have agreed to transform the "truce" into a "lasting ceasefire" and must now determine how to achieve this goal, the correspondent UN for the country."The two sides came to Geneva and we started yesterday to discuss with them the long list of items on the agenda, starting from the attempt to transform (...) this truce into a real agreement on a cease enduring fire. The principle was adopted during the first session and the question is what the conditions are, "Ghassan Salame told reporters.
Since April, the forces of Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the strong man of the East who seeks to conquer Tripoli, are opposed to those of Fayez al-Serraj, head of the government of national unity recognized by the UN. For the first time, senior military officials from both sides meet in Geneva, where they have initiated indirect negotiations. Confirmed at the international summit on 19 January in Berlin, the joint military commission is composed according to the so-called "5 + 5" format, with five members representing the GNA and another five of Marshal Haftar.
"There is a real will on both sides to sit together and start negotiating together," said Salame ', stressing, however, that the parties are not yet directly discussing. This first meeting was supposed to start on January 28, but ultimately did not take place, due to the lack of participation of the representatives of Marshal Haftar. The UN envoy then went to Marshal Haftar on Saturday in Benghazi (east) to convince him to participate in the meeting in Geneva.
The UN envoy once again denounced the continuing violations of the commitments that the international community made in Berlin on 12 January to stop interference and arms deliveries to belligerents. "We are concerned because we believe the resolutions are clear enough taken in Berlin are not respected by both sides of the conflict and we see that new mercenaries are coming, new equipment for both sides, "he said, urging the Security Council to quickly adopt a resolution to create new momentum towards the end of the In parallel with the military talks in Geneva, the United Nations launched another round of discussions on economic and financial issues, and a first round of talks was held in Tunis on January 6th. A second round is slated for February 9 in Cairo, Salame said. He also hopes that the parties will begin political discussions, "probably in two weeks in Geneva".