France, Turkey, the United States, Italy, China, and Russia say they will no longer grant support to the warring parties in Libya. This was during the conference on Libya held on January 19 in Berlin.

At the end of this meeting, which was attended by Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Abdel Fattah al-Sissi alongside Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel, the participating countries called for “a permanent ceasefire” on the ground. A decision that jeopardizes the Turkish President’s announcement on January 16 to send troops to Libya.

Despite the many ceasefire deals concluded, conflict still reigns in the country, since Mouammar Kadhafi died in 2011. Observers say the war is worsened by the influx of arms into the country despite an embargo imposed several years ago, and also by suspicions of meddling by certain foreign powers. In particular, Russia is accused of having sent soldiers to the Libyan territory to assist the Libyan National Army (LNA).

Agreeing that there was no effective military solution to the resolution of the Libyan war, the countries participating in the Berlin Summit pledged to respect the embargo and to put in place a course of action to ensure that this measure is more strictly controlled than before.

The two main current protagonists in the Libyan conflict - President Fayez el-Sarraj (supported by Turkey) and Marshal Khalifa Haftar (supported by Russia and Egypt) – were also present in Berlin on January 19 but did not attend the summit and did not wish to meet. “The conference was very useful (…) but it is clear that we have not yet succeeded in launching a serious and stable dialogue,” said Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov. Nevertheless, a meeting should soon be organized between the representatives of the two belligerents to find a way out of the crisis.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou