Negotiations for a new constitution in Libya begin
The conflict in Libya is taking steps towards a joint resolution between the opposing parties. After almost seven years of confrontation and a completely divided country, the Libyans are regaining hope of holding new elections and forming a new constitution to end the conflict.
The Libyan country has been divided since the 2011 Arab Spring riots. The death of Muammar al-Qadhafi marks the end of nine years of conflict and divisions that have left the Libyan population on edge. The energy, economic and health crises are weighing on citizens who have been demonstrating in the streets against the two governments since August.
Libya currently has two governments: the GNA, led by Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj, and the eastern parliament of Tobruk, created in 2014 and associated with the Libyan National Army (LNA) commanded by Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
The delegations of the two parties to the conflict in Libya met yesterday in Cairo to begin a new round of negotiations on constitutional arrangements, a step prior to the intra-Libyan dialogue that will begin in early November in Tunis to agree on the holding of elections.
There are currently three negotiating tracks open in three different locations: in Geneva, where negotiations began in February to map out the first steps to be taken. In Morocco, Bouznika, political and structural peace pacts are being discussed. And in Egypt, Hurgada, where the steps to be taken towards a ceasefire and the agreement on military and security restructuring are being discussed.
According to the Egyptian state agency MENA, representatives of the Libyan Parliament and Council of State held the first meeting of this new round of negotiations in the Egyptian capital on Sunday, at which they discussed "the mechanisms for resolving the Libyan crisis and the frameworks for a new constitution".
Egypt is acting as mediator in this political forum, which will last until the 13th, and has previously facilitated talks, sponsored by the United Nations, between the opposing factions on security issues and military deployment in the city of Hurgada in September.
As usual at these forums, the names of the members of both factions of the Tobruk parliament in the east of the country and of those of the Council of State were not disclosed.
The director of Egypt's intelligence service, Abbas Kamel, said during the meeting that Cairo supports a political agreement under the auspices of the UN and the need to reach an intra-Libyan solution without the interference of external actors.
"The time has come to fulfil the aspirations of the Libyan people by pushing forward the political path for Libya to have a constitution that defines the powers and responsibilities, which will lead to presidential and parliamentary elections," Kamel said.
The United Nations is organising intra-Libyan negotiation forums to solve the complex political, economic and military conflict in which Libya is living, in the framework of the agreements reached last January in Berlin to try to stop the war.
On 2 January, the opposing parties met in the Moroccan city of Bouznika to agree on the mechanisms for appointing the seven most important state posts, something which was rejected by the Libyan Judicial Council, which considered this mechanism to be "discriminatory".
Before the Forum on Libyan Political Dialogue begins in Tunis at the beginning of November, the opposing parties will meet in Geneva on the 19th to discuss military affairs.
The civil war has been raging in the North African country since 2014 and has become an international war scenario involving different foreign powers with different interests on the ground. Haftar's LNA is supported by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Russia and France, while the GNA receives military support from Turkey and financial support from Qatar, and has been recognised by the United Nations (UN) since 2016.