The fourth round of the 5+5 Libyan Joint Military Commission commenced in Geneva, on Monday, as part of United Nations (UN) efforts to reach a peaceful solution to the long-time crisis in the country.
The talks have also set out to achieve a complete and permanent ceasefire in the war-torn country.
In a statement, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said that its head, Stephanie Williams, who is also the Acting Special Representative for the UN Secretary-General also participated in talks.
The 5+5 commission is one of three intra-Libyan tracks that UNSMIL is working on, along with the economic and political tracks, which emerged from the 2020 Berlin Conference on Libya, UNSMIL said.
“The tracks were endorsed by Security Council Resolution 2510 of 2020, which called on both parties to reach an agreement for a permanent ceasefire,” it added, “The deliberations of this round will continue until the 24th of this month. UNSMIL hopes that the two delegations will reach a solution to all outstanding issues in order to achieve a complete and permanent ceasefire across Libya.”
Between 11 to 13 October, meetings between delegations representing Libya’s House of Representatives and the country’s High Council of State were held in Cairo to discuss constitutional arrangements.
The two parties agreed that “the transitional period should come to an end, and that dialogue between the two Councils should continue”, the UNSMIL statement said. This would ensure that a consensus is reached on arrangements so that the country moves forward.
In late September, military and security delegations representing the two rival Libyan parties met in the Egyptian Red Sea city of Hurghada for high-level talks. The meeting, the first to take place in five years, included military and security officials from the Eastern-based Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) and the Government of National Accord (GNA) based in Tripoli.
The Libyan arena has, in recent weeks, witnessed rapid developments, the most important of which has been the resumption of the country’s oil production and export. The GNA head, Fayez Al-Sarraj, also made an announcement of his intention to resign by the end of October.
In August, Al-Sarraj and Libya’s Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh announced, in two separate statements, that they had agreed on a Libya-wide ceasefire.
