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Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Plans for Libya’s two rival governments to meet in Malta fell through when the government out of Tobruk failed to show. The two administrations expressed an interest on December 11 in having the heads of their parliaments meet December 12 in Malta, according to a statement from Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s office.
Malta agreed to provide logistical support and, while a delegation led by Tripoli General National Congress President Nouri Abusahmein arrived on the Mediterranean island, the delegation from Tobruk canceled their participation, Muscat’s office said.
The failure to show comes at a time when diplomats from around the world were about to gather in Rome to discuss facilitating the formation of a government of national unity in Libya; US Secretary of State, John Kerry, was one of those diplomats.
An agreement on Libya may be signed soon, EU foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini said December 12 in Rome. The diplomats said December 13 that the rival governments need to accept an immediate cease-fire and embrace the UN-brokered plan aimed at creating a “secure, democratic, prosperous, and unified state.”
“We refuse to stand by and watch a vacuum filled by terrorists because all of us are unwilling to do what’s necessary to help people who want their freedom, want their independence, want their country back,” Secretary of State Kerry said after a conference that drew officials from 17 countries, the EU, the AU, the Arab League, and the UN, as well as 15 Libyan leaders.
While the Malta meeting was a bust, the two governments are set to sign the agreement mediated by UN special envoy Martin Kobler at a ceremony December 16 in Morocco. Whether both governments will show up and sign the agreement is another matter altogether.
The plan for a national unity government “is not something being sprung on the people of Libya,” said Kerry, who hosted the conference with Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni. “This has been developed by Libyans” through lengthy negotiations and “deserves to breathe the air of a future and of freedom and of possibilities.”
A joint statement issued after the conference urged “all parties to accept an immediate, comprehensive cease-fire in all parts of Libya” and pledged economic, security and counter terrorism assistance for the unity government.
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