The UN-brokered negotiations to resolve the crisis in Libya threatened to fall apart after the country’s internationally recognised Parliament today dropped out of the talks in protest over a plan that would mean sharing power with its rivals.
The wrangling over the UN draft plan came as militants from the North African nation’s Islamic State affiliate seized new territory, inching closer to a major city and oil terminals, virtually Libya’s sole source of state revenues.
The threat of the Islamic State group, which already holds two cities and several towns in Libya, is one of the factors fueling the United Nations’ push to resolve the country’s chronic chaos. European countries fear the extremists will gain a larger bastion just across the Mediterranean.
Libya’s escalated turmoil the past year has also fuelled a > sharp increase in migrants using its coast to try to reach European shores, with hundreds dying at sea in the attempt.
The draft power-sharing plan was announced on Monday from Morocco, where UN officials have been mediating talks between the two sides. On Tuesday, before the Libyan parliament announcement, UN envoy Bernardino Leon expressed cautious optimism that the deal would win consensus among rival groups.
“There is a general sense of hope, I would say even optimism ... But still we have to be cautious.”
After the elected parliament announced its suspension, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, “We all remain hopeful the parties will support the agreement.” Since the ouster and > killing of dictator Muamar Qadhafi in the 2011 civil war, Libya has been in chaos. Successive governments have been powerless since the army and police were shattered by the war.
The crisis was exacerbated when a militia force known as Libya Dawn, made up mainly of fighters from the third-largest city Misrata, took over Tripoli last year, allowing the Islamist factions including the Muslim Brotherhood to set up their government while the anti-Islamist government fled east.
