Libya .. UN talk about progress towards establishing the armistice and prospective economic meetings in Egypt

The United Nations envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salameh, said that the meetings of the Joint Libyan Military Committee held in Geneva had made progress in several issues, indicating that Cairo will host next Sunday meetings that will activate the economic track in the Libyan crisis.

Salama added in a press conference in Geneva that he hoped that the indirect meetings between five officers of the Libyan reconciliation government forces and those of retired Major General Khalifa Haftar's forces would end with the conversion of the armistice into a permanent ceasefire between the two parties.

The UN envoy indicated that he also hopes that the expected agreement will persuade foreign powers to stop arms shipments to both sides of the Libyan conflict.

Salama acknowledged that there are points of difference the two sides seek to reduce, stressing that the military negotiations that began since last Monday are still indirect.

Cairo Meetings
On the other hand, the UN official said that the Egyptian capital will host next Sunday meetings that will take place to activate the economic and financial track, pending the identification of representatives of the parties to the conflict to advance the faltering political track, as he put it.

Commenting on Salameh’s talk about the upcoming economic meetings in Egypt, former Libyan Labor Minister Mohamed Belkheir said that choosing the time and location of these meetings “is a provocation to the Libyan feelings and sentiments in the western region of Libya,” explaining that Libyans “lost their children and bombed their homes by Egyptian planes.”

In a related context, Ghassan Salameh said that contacts are taking place with the leaders of the Libyan National Oil Company regarding the resumption of export and distribution of revenues that form the backbone of the local economy, and the same spokesman added that the United Nations expects that tribal leaders in eastern Libya will hand over a list of conditions to reopen closed oil ports.

The losses resulting from the closure of the major Libyan oil export ports are estimated at about one billion dollars since loyalists stormed the port of Zouitina on the 18th of last month.

The political track
On the political track, the UN envoy to Libya expressed his hope that the invited figures from both sides will participate in the political track on February 26 in Geneva, explaining that "one of the parties succeeded in choosing his representatives, and the other still finds it difficult."

It is noteworthy that on January 19, an international conference on Libya was held in the German capital Berlin, with the participation of 12 countries and four international and regional organizations, and the most prominent items of his closing statement were the need to adhere to the declared cease-fire with a Turkish-Russian initiative.

Since April 4, 2019, Haftar's forces have launched a massive attack on Tripoli (the headquarters of the internationally recognized government of Al-Wefaq) with the aim of controlling it. The attack has resulted in significant losses of lives and property, as well as the displacement of thousands of civilians.