Kerry, UK foreign secretary host meeting on Libya stalemate

[anatta]

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson hosted a London meeting Monday designed to help break Libya's political stalemate and resolve its acute cash shortage.

State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the meeting "emphasized the international community's commitment to provide the Government of National Accord technical, economic, humanitarian, security and counter-terrorism assistance."

The session comes after the United Nations-backed Libyan government's failure to win legitimacy — or to function at all — amid the political fragmentation that followed the overthrow and killing of dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

Kerry and Johnson were joined by Libya's designated Prime Minister Fayez Serraj and other senior figures including U.N. special envoy Martin Kobler and diplomats from Italy, France and Saudi Arabia.

The agenda for the ministerial meeting is addressing the economic and security issues facing the U.N.-backed government in the chaotic North African country.

The U.N.-backed government has failed to win the endorsement of Libya's internationally recognized Parliament, which is a prerequisite to assume power. At the same time, Serraj faces a challenge from a self-declared prime minister in Tripoli who is trying to establish control.

There have been sporadic reports of violence in the capital and other parts of the country.

Western governments have been alarmed by the growing presence of so-called Islamic State extremists in the country.

Libyans are facing a severe cash crisis after years of declining revenues from oil exports. Oil terminals have been shut down due to the ongoing violence and the militia's takeover of the terminals.

The Libyan economy depends entirely on oil revenues.

Kerry, winding down his time as the chief U.S. diplomat, also received two awards from venerable institutions — The Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House and the Benjamin Franklin House — and joined London Mayor Sadiq Khan for a meeting with young Londoners.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/kerry-uk-foreign-secretary-host-meeting-libya-095737771.html

 

[anatta]

.... the meeting appeared to yield little more than an expression of support for the embattled Libyan leadership.

Kerry and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson convened the gathering in London that included ministers from France, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, who met with Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj.

The ministers reaffirmed what a State Department official said was "strong international support" for Libya's Government of National Accord, the U.N.-backed interim governing body that has thus far been unable to establish control outside the capital, Tripoli.

There is a crisis of legitimacy that is now much deeper than at the beginning of the civil war,"

said Wolfram Lacher, Middle East and Africa Associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs at a forum in London earlier this year.

The crisis, along with the prospect of economic collapse, have deepened concerns about widening opportunities for Islamists in western Libya.

U.S. airstrikes supported

The meeting was held as Libyan government forces supported by a U.S. air campaign make gains in their efforts to wrest control of the coastal city of Sirte from about 100 Islamic State militants who reports say are holed up in the city.

State Department officials said ministers meeting Monday in London noted the "important progress" the GNA and its allied forces are making in Sirte. The U.S. officials reaffirmed their "continuing and strong" support of al-Sarraj's efforts against Islamic State militants.

The statements follow criticism by observers who note the operation to retake Sirte, launched in May, was originally expected to take a few weeks but, after several months, is still ongoing.

Libya's economy is nearly entirely dependent on oil and gas exports and is on the verge of collapse after crude prices last year dropped to seven-year lows and production plummeted to a third of its pre-war levels as a result of factional fighting.

There were no concrete proposals of aid, but ministers said technical talks will be held to follow up and implement their effort.