Libya conference in Paris to try again to solve crisis

Bloomberg

A conference to help resolve a seven-year crisis in Libya and lead to United Nations-backed elections in the North African country has been set for Paris on May 29. Four Libyans—UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez
al-Serraj, eastern military stro-ngman Khalifa Haftar, the president of the eastern House of Representatives Aguila Saleh, and Khaled Al-Mishri, president of the High Council of State—will gather at the French presidential palace, an official in the French president’s office told
the reporters.
The conference will be held under the patronage of UN Special Representative for Libya Ghassan Salame, appointed in 2017, and hosted by President Emmanuel Macron.
The Libyan representatives may sign onto a political document that commits the country to holding presidential and legislative elections by year-end, as well to backing the Government of National Accord and supporting a unified central bank, said the official, who asked not to be named in accordance to Elysee Palace ground rules. Libya descended into chaos following the uprising that toppled Moammar Qaddafi in 2011, with myriad armed groups and two administrations vying for power.
The French-led effort to reunify the fractured nation started with a conference last year that failed to consult powerful local forces and as a result achieved little. Libya poses a threat to the region as well as to Europe as hub of drug, human and arms trafficking, and also harbors terrorist groups, the French official said. Nineteen countries and four international organizations will gather at the Elysee Palace in the latest attempt to hash out a solution.