Tripoli,
LIBYA
Ghassan
Salamé, the head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the UN
Secretary General’s special envoy to the country, has resigned, Monday.
Fourth to try. UN Envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame holds a news briefing after a meeting of the 5+5 Libyan Joint Military Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, February 6. |
In a tweet, he said that his health could not stand
up to the stress of trying to achieve a solution to Libya’s conflict and that
he had offered his resignation to the Secretary-General as a result.
The decision follows the failure of the three-track
process spawned by the Berlin Conference of 19 January both to create a
permanent ceasefire in the conflict around Tripoli between the Libyan National
Army (LNA) of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and the Islamist forces supporting
the internationally-recognised Government of National Accord led by Fayez
Sarraj and to find common ground between the parties to conflict.
Despite Salamé’s constant spin following the Berlin
Conference that UNMIL’s efforts were moving Libya “in the right direction”, it
has been clear that it was not the case.
The 5+5 military track negotiations, bringing
together top military commanders from both the LNA and the GNA to work out the
basis for a ceasefire, met twice in Geneva last month but failed to achieve any
significant agreement.
The second round almost did not happen.
Following the LNA’s attack on Tripoli harbour on 18
February, Sarraj initially announced that he was pulling the GNA’s negotiators
out.
Intensive behind-the-scenes negotiations and
foreign political pressure changed his mind, but the talks were still sterile.
Meanwhile UNSMIL’s economic track talks in Cairo on
9-10 February did little more than talk about reforms that have been regularly
discussed since the 2011 toppling of the Gadhafi regime but never implemented.
As for the political track discussions, which were
due to start on 26 February, again in Geneva, they hardly got off the ground
after the rival Tobruk-based House of Representatives and the Tripoli-based
State Council decided to boycott the talks.
The failure of the political discussions seems to
have been the final straw for Salamé. Over the past year, there were repeated
rumours of him having health issues and contemplating resignation as a result.
According to experts, Sqalamé was disappointed by
the inability of Libyan rivals to find common ground in Geneva and by his own
failure to stop foreign interventions which reached unprecedented proportions
in recent months.
The most brazen attitude was that of Ankara which
repeatedly declared its intent to continue supplying the GNA with pro-Turkish
fighters from Syria and with military equipment.
Lack of progress earned Salamé a lot of criticism
from all quarters although people close to him felt he had tried his best to
handle a task that proved impossible at the end.
Till now, however, it was thought he would still
soldier on.
He now becomes the fourth UN special envoy to Libya
whose efforts to bring peace to the country have ended in failure.
Given the record, it may be difficult to quickly
find a replacement. As one senior official in Tripoli suggested to The Arab
Weekly, the task is at present almost impossible to achieve.
Until a replacement is found, his deputy, Stephanie
Williams, is expected to head the UN mission. She may even be asked to take
over the job.
However, until a new head is found, all UN peace
efforts will be on hold.
Meanwhile, despite the official truce between the
LNA and GNA, in reality the battle for the city has fully reignited, with
continuous shelling by both sides. – The Arab Weekly
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