Macron grasps initiative in Libyan row with Paris talks

Bloomberg

French President Emmanuel Macron was expected to meet on Tuesday with the head of Libya’s United Nations-backed government and the North African oil producer’s powerful eastern-based military commander in the latest attempt to seek a solution to their standoff.
Macron’s office said the initiative is aimed at facilitating the work of UN special negotiator Ghassan Salame, who will also take part in the talks near Paris between Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj and Khalifa Haftar, who leads the so-called Libyan National Army.
“The goal is to build a state capable of responding to the fundamental needs of Libyans and with a unified regular army under civilian control,” Macron’s office said in a statement on Monday announcing the meeting. “It’s necessary to control Libyan territory and its borders in order to fight against terrorist groups and human and weapons traffickers, but also in order to return to a stable institutional life.”
Libya descended into chaos following the uprising that toppled Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, with myriad armed groups and two administrations vying for power. A UN-mediated peace deal was meant to unite the country, but since arriving in Tripoli in March 2016, Serraj has struggled to expand his influence outside the capital. Salame, a Lebanese academic and civil servant, is the latest of the string of special UN negotiators.
Serraj and Haftar, met in Abu Dhabi in May for the first time since early last year. Initially hailed as a breakthrough, analysts said later the meeting was fruitless. A joint official statement was never issued and battlefield developments in the south of Libya soon eroded any goodwill.
The two sides will probably be urged to agree to a cease-fire, to create a unified national army, and to hold elections “as soon as possible,” a draft statement showed, though French officials warned it was not finalized.