Four years after U.S. intervention, Libya has essentially become a failed state. A multi-faceted militia war now rages there. Libya has two rival governments — one elected and one self-appointed — as well as other paramilitary groups, including the Islamic State, all of whom are active in the country.
It’s a real mess.
Last week, the United Nations issued a mediated Libyan political agreement. Libya’s internationally recognized parliament, based in Tobruk, is expected to accept it provisionally. The draft document gives the Tobruk parliament almost all political power — to make laws and to appoint the prime minister, head of the armed forces and chief of the central bank.
This power would come at the expense of its rival, the National Salvation Government — a rump government in Tripoli that includes Islamists and U.S. designated terrorists. In fact, the agreement does not even acknowledge its existence.
The parties in the NSG, including the Muslim Brotherhood’s Justice and Construction Party, announced their united opposition to the plan within hours of it being made public. Their demands have been ignored by the UN drafters thus far.
The draft, in turn, could be ignored by everyone. But there is at least some hope that this draft document will help encourage doubts about the NSG within one key militia faction that is currently supporting it from Misrata.
It’s important to understand how this multiple-parliament situation came about. The Tobruk parliament comprises the winners of the election last summer. The losers — mostly Muslim Brotherhood and other extreme Islamist parties — took Tripoli by force after losing seats at the ballot box. The violence forced the legitimate parliament’s flight to Tobruk, a coastal town near the Egyptian border.
The Tripoli government (NSG) has worked hard to mislead people about how it came to be. Its propaganda now casts its seizure of Tripoli as a “successful military and counter-insurgency campaign against [Islamic State] and other extremist elements.”
In fact, the NSG military campaign “liberated” Libya from its democratically elected parliament. It also destroyed Tripoli’s International airport, facilitated Islamic State attacks on Tripoli’s foreign diplomats, and has led to the subsequent unpunished Islamic State beheadings of foreign workers and journalists.
Militias supporting the unelected NSG have also intentionally destroyed critical oil infrastructure in eastern Libya that serves as the revenue source for the democratically elected government in Tobruk.
The Islamist government in Tripoli did not take up arms to stop the Islamic State, but the security meltdown and chaos it has caused allowed the terrorist organization to gain a foothold. Meanwhile, NSG leaders continue to downplay the terror threat in areas they control, as well as its own ties to terrorism.
Former NSG Prime Minister Omar al Hassi characterized the U.S. designated terror group Ansar al Sharia in Benghazi as a “charity” and “a beautiful idea.” His successor, Khalifa Ghwell, used his first days in office to double down on official support for that group, which was implicated in the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, as well as 1,000 other killings.
But the NSG ties to terrorism are stronger than mere approbations. Khaled Sharif, formerly of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, had been rendered by U.S. officials and imprisoned on terror charges before he was appointed deputy defense minister for the Tripoli government. He has since violated a UN arms embargo by importing caches of ammunition and weapons for Libya’s warring militias.
The hope at this point is that the UN proposal will finally convince the important and sizable Misratan militias to break away from the militia coalition that is supporting the NSG. This would reduce the Tripoli government’s support to only radical Islamist fighters and cadres tied to the Muslim Brotherhood.
A switch of sides by the Misratans may be the only thing that can break the impasse in Libya and restore some small semblance of order to a deeply troubled nation.
Richard Galustian is a senior consultant to several international corporations involved in Libya and the greater Middle East and North Africa. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
