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In mid-February, the GNA announced that it suspended the talks of the Joint Military Committee “5 + 5” in the Swiss city of Geneva, after the militias of Haftar continued their shelling of the capital, Tripoli, and continued violations of the agreement signed at the time.
Military operations continued on the ground, and witnessed development in the last two months, and the army forces expelled the Haftar militias from the western coast, and the Alwittia air base, and advanced in axes south of the capital, where the defeat of the Haftar militias is imminent in their last outposts in the vicinity of the capital.
But the United Nations Support Mission in Libya suddenly announced the acceptance of both the GNA and Haftar to resume the Joint Military Committee talks, stressing the need for the two parties to fully authorize their representatives in the negotiations to complete the ceasefire agreement.
The mission called on the supporting countries to respect what they agreed upon in the outputs of the Berlin conference, and the various Security Council resolutions in particular, and to stop all forms of military support once and for all.
But why did this announcement come at this time, especially after Haftar asked the German Foreign Ministry to offer a humanitarian truce after his successive defeats? Will the GNA respond to this international pressure? Or will it welcome as a matter of political diplomacy? And continue military operations on the ground?
French role
The writer and journalist Abdullah Al-Kabeer said that the UN mission announced the resumption of the talks, but neither the GNA nor Haftar agreed, which means that both of them reluctantly accepted in submission to the international pressure exerted on them.
In a statement to Arraed, Al-Kabeer considered that Haftar does not wish to end the war, and he did not realize the extent of his loss yet. As for the Presidential Council, by this approval they concedes on the most important condition, which is the return of the aggressor forces, and stopping their targeting of the capital.
Al-Kabeer pointed out that France is the one that seeks the return of these negotiations, taking advantage of the outputs of the Berlin Conference to restore its effectiveness in Libya after the increase of the influence of major powers such as Russia and Turkey, and the decline of the French role, which was until recently more effective than all the countries involved in the conflict, and the Negotiations are not expected to produce good results , if they are held.
Another sliding
Political analyst Faraj Dardour said If the mission statement is correct , and the President of the Presidential Council, Fayez al-Sarraj, accepted the resumption of the talks, it is another sliding in which the Saraj fell in , as happened in the Paris Agreement, when the French slag was intended to introduce Haftar into the scene, through Military legitimacy. Haftar became military legitimacy and Al-Sarraj civil legitimacy.
Dardour added, in a statement to Arraed , that if Al-Sarraj agreed, it would be “the stupidity that Einstein defined that he did the same thing twice with the same tools and waited for different results” according to his description.
Dardour explained that last Saturday there was a meeting between the Egyptian President Abdulfattah Alsisi and the French President “Emmanuel Macron” in which they discussed the Libyan situation, and the results of the meeting was the communication of the French Foreign Minister “Jean-Lev Laudrian” with Al-Sarraj and asked for a return to negotiations, and this is what actually happened, which is represents an attempt to save Haftar from defeat, noting that The GNA’s silence shows that there is a problem in the matter.
Intransigent party
The political activist Ghada Bassem said that in the event that the Presidential Council agreed to resume the JMC 5 + 5 talks, the essential conditions of the current situation announced by the GNA should not be abandoned.
Bassem explained, in a statement to Arraed, that these conditions include a categorical rejection of Haftar’s presence in any political scene and dialogue, and defeating his aggression and returning it from where it came from, noting that she sees the agreement is going in parallel with the military operations and not against it, which is the legitimate political cover for it.
Basem said that the Presidential Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Libya’s envoy to the United Nations, Taher Al-Sunni, confirmed earlier and until now their refusal to have Haftar in the political scene, believing that if the GNA agrees it will appear as a matter of political action that is required not to place the government in the position of the intransigent party in front of External actors and taken against it from countries that support the Haftar aggression to weaken their position and do not mean defeat as promoted by the supporters of the aggression.
Are we going to witness an international pressure to keep Haftar on the political scene, or will the course of the military operation on the ground have a final say?
