Acuerdo de compromisos entre las partes enfrentadas en Libia en las conversaciones auspiciadas por Marruecos

Contacts between the Government of National Accord (GNA), led by Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj, and the other eastern Tobruk Executive associated with the Libyan National Army (LNA), commanded by Marshal Khalifa Haftar, have led to an agreement on the need to reach a "compromise" to end the conflict in the North African country. 

The talks have been held under the extremely important mediation of Morocco, as detailed by the Moroccan news agency MAP, which cites a joint declaration made at the end of the meetings held on Tuesday in Moroccan territory. The parties agreed to work to end corruption and the misuse of public funds in a country like Libya, which has been devastated by the war that has been going on since 2014 following the fall of Muammar al-Qadhafi's regime in 2011.

The joint declaration includes the fact that "important commitments" have been agreed upon, although without providing further details. "The two parties hope to achieve positive and concrete results that will pave the way for the process of a comprehensive political settlement", the official note added. 

This latest meeting took place at the initiative of Rabat, which had hosted the 2015 peace talks leading to the creation of a government recognised by the United Nations (UN). Since 2016 the United Nations has recognised the GNA, which in the war in Libya is strongly supported by Turkey (with its military support) and Qatar (with its financial support). The Eurasian nation led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan reached an agreement in November 2019 with Fayez Sarraj to give military support to the GNA in the battle and to distribute economic zones in the eastern Mediterranean, important for its gas and oil resources. A pact that led to the lifting of the protests of Greece and the European Union for supposedly invading the maritime borders of the Greek islands. 

The war in Libya has become a conflict involving various foreign powers with interests in the North African nation, which intervene by sending paid mercenaries to support the militias in combat on the ground. Various media have published information on Turkey's sending of militiamen from Syria who are allegedly attached to groups that were linked in the past to terrorist organisations such as Daesh and al-Qaeda. 

For its part, the Khalifa Haftar LNA has the support of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (these three regional rivals of Qatar), Russia and France. Haftar's forces launched a major offensive in April last year on the capital of Tripoli, a bastion of the GNA, and were in control of the situation, but the Turkish intervention varied the course of events and Sarraj's militias recovered ground and important enclaves to the extent of threatening cities such as Sirte and Jufra, marked as red lines by neighbouring Egypt, which threatened to use its powerful army if these centres were attacked. 

The latest talks held in Morocco followed the announcement by the two sides in Libya of a surprise ceasefire last month, which was sealed by Fayez Sarraj and Aguila Saleh, president of the parliament of Tobruk, the eastern power in Libya associated with Haftar's LNA, who did not express any opinion on the cessation of hostilities.  

Abdessalam al-Safraoui, who heads the negotiating team of the GNA, said on Monday that the dialogue in the coastal city of Bouznika, south of Rabat, focused on appointments to authorities in key Libyan institutions. The appointment of the heads of the Central Bank of Libya, its National Petroleum Corporation and the armed forces have been the main points of dispute, according to Libyan media.

The UN has referred positively to the progress of the negotiations. "We are confident that Morocco's latest initiative will have a positive impact on the United Nations' facilitation of Libyan-owned and Libyan-led political dialogue," the spokesman for the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, said on Monday.