Washington is increasing the pressure on the Libyan parties to be able to organize general elections in 2023. On Monday, Barbara Leaf, the assistant to the American secretary of state, in charge of the Middle East who met in Benghazi the self-proclaimed marshal Khalifa Haftar then the president of the Aguila Saleh parliament. To the two officials from eastern Libya, she stressed the need to create a favorable climate for the holding of the polls. These meetings in Benghazi coincide with the multiplication of security and military contacts between East and West Libya initiated by the UN.
According to the Pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, unannounced contacts took place abroad between representatives of the Tripoli government led by Abdelhamid Dbeibah and Marshal Haftar. These contacts resulted in an agreement to prepare for the elections.
It is a question of integrating the militias and armed groups in the West into the ranks of the security and military forces of the State.
This would be the condition of Khalifa Haftar to allow the forces of the Ministry of the Interior in Tripoli to control the polls.
Among the efforts aimed at reunifying the security forces, Michael Langley, the commander of Africom has proposed forming a joint military force to be sent to southern Libya to monitor the elections there. It was March 3 when the commander of Africom met two Libyan generals from the two opposing camps, on the sidelines of a Congress of African Chiefs of Staff in Rome.
Last week in Tunis, the UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily organized a meeting between heads of security units from East and West, in the presence of members of the 5+5 joint military commission. Objective: to promote the elections and renew contacts. The UN hopes to reach an agreement on a legal framework for the elections before the end of June.