It was held yesterday in the Libyan capital Tripoli a historic expanded meeting of military and security leaders of the western and eastern regions of Libya and members of the 5+5 Joint Military Committee, in the presence of the UN Special Envoy, Abdoulaye Bathily. A meeting of this type between the senior officials of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica in the Libyan capital has not taken place since 2015. Present were, among others, General Abdelrazek al Nadori, designated commander of the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) with headquarters in Ar Rajma, just outside Benghazi; Abdul Ghani al Kikli, better known as Ghaniwa, head of the powerful stabilization support agency affiliated to the Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity (GUN) Abdulhamid Dabaiba. According to the Gun Interior Ministry chaired by Minister Imad Trabelsi (influential leader of the armed groups in the western city of Zitan) the meeting was aimed at "unifying efforts to organize elections and establish communication mechanisms between security units and military, in order to put an end to internal differences and save Libya".
The United Nations believes that a more relaxed atmosphere between the armed groups of the East and West is essential to propitiate the parliamentary and presidential elections, which should hopefully be held in Libya by 2023. The dossier of the reunification of the armed forces and the dismantling of the militias is one of the cornerstones of the path outlined by the UN to resolve the crisis in Libya, where a ceasefire between the parties is still in force. At the same time, the Tripoli meeting strengthens the relationship between the two strong men of the West and the East, namely Prime Minister Dabaiba and Libyan general Khalifa Haftar, the two main favorites to win the election together with Saif al Islam Gaddafi, the second son of the dictator killed by rebels in Sirte in 2011.
As anticipated by "Agenzia Nova" last week, the first step towards the reunification of the Libyan army, a country currently divided between two rival administrations in Tripoli and Benghazi, could be the creation of a joint force to be sent to the south. The idea is to initially create three battalions representing Tripolitania (west), Cyrenaica (east) and Fezzan (south) to intervene in the southern regions, with a commander reporting to the two Chiefs of Staff: General Mohamed Al Haddad , which reports to the Government of National Unity in Tripoli, and General Abdelrazek al Nadori, designated commander of the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) with headquarters in Ar Rajma, just outside Benghazi. According to the Libyan sources of "Nova", a joint unit should leave for Ash Shwayrif, a city located halfway between the capital Tripoli and the city of Sebha, the capital of Fezzan.
The proposal was discussed in Tunis in recent days during a meeting of the "security working group" on Libya in the presence of members of the Joint Libyan Military Committee 5+5 (made up of senior officers from eastern and western Libya), the special of the UN Bathily, of the two Libyan Chiefs of Staff, of the ambassadors of the United Kingdom, Turkey, Italy and France and of the representatives of the African Union. The launch of the reunification of the Libyan army would therefore make it possible to improve the situation in the south, also to the advantage of the Sahel countries suffering from Libyan instability. It is therefore a crucial step, which however collides with many difficulties on the ground: from the controversies linked to the chain of command to the problem of military equipment. The Libyan parties, the sources of "Nova" report, would like the international community to arm the three battalions, but there is the problem of the United Nations embargo.
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