Libya’s Military: 2022 A Sign of Hope for Unity and an End to the Crisis
“Libya’s political, security, and economic crises without tangible progress, but the military course of 2022 offered a glimmer of hope for the country on the path to stability.”
Libya has been in a suffocating political crisis for years; “The most intense this year was in 2022, with a fierce power struggle between two governments, which affected every aspect of Libyan life;” Whether in education, health, or other fields, the fight has come to a head over the country’s revenues.
The hope was that this conflict would be ended by launching parallel tracks at the political, economic, and military levels.
The political track represents a UN initiative to form a joint committee of the Libyan House of Representatives and the Libyan State to agree on a constitutional basis to build elections. However, these efforts have been going very slowly since their inception last March; The Brotherhood has also been the main cause of repeated stumbling blocks, apart from problems that have stalled a solution and exacerbated the crisis.
As for the economic track, which is trying to resolve a financial crisis that naturally resulted in an institutional division that affected the economic institutions of the country, it is the path through which the United Nations has tried to find a solution, but there are no positive results for that path so far; Institutions remain divided, and unification negotiations have been on hold indefinitely.
The third track – the security track, overseen by the UN, and its most important objective – continues to unify the military in eastern Libya, led by General Khalifa Haftar, and the western militaries of the country into one body.
Here is the security and military track that is the most successful to resolve the Libyan crisis in 2022:
May
On 23 May 2022, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Union (EU), in cooperation with the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, organized in the Spanish city of Toledo a workshop on the role of international partners in assisting Libya to integrate and disarm armed militias within state institutions.
During the meeting, a committee representing the General Command of the Libyan Army spoke about “the reasons behind the continuation of the Libyan crisis, especially its security aspect through armed militias that prevent the establishment of a state and institutions.”
June
On June 15, 2022, to weaken these militias, Libya’s military began negotiations to unify the divided military institution, where members of the 5+5 joint military commission from the military of eastern and western Libya met for consecutive days in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in the presence of the Chief of the General Staff of the Libyan Army, General Abdel Razeq al-Nadhuri, and his counterpart in Libya’s western region, General Mohamed al-Haddad.
The two sides discussed “the full implementation of the Comprehensive Ceasefire Agreement and coordination of efforts and arrangements for the withdrawal of foreign fighters and mercenaries, and agreed on the importance of unifying the military institution and building a strong army away from political disputes through the formation of joint committees for this purpose,” which is considered an achievement in the file.
July
“On 18 July 2022, the historic ceasefire agreement opened the door to direct consultations between the two parties, with the Chief of Staff of the Libyan Army, Lieutenant General Abdel Razeq al-Nadhuri, heading to the capital Tripoli for the first time since the Libyan crisis to meet his counterpart there, Mohamed al-Haddad.”
During the Tripoli meeting, the two sides discussed “border guard issues that came within the framework of the fight against terrorism and illegal migration, as well as the continuation of measures that started in order to unify the military institution, and the results of the work of the military committee in the ceasefire and the maintenance of peace and security.”
The meeting also discussed “outstanding files resulting from previous military operations (between the two parties) and their victims, and finding solutions for them, whether through treatment, study, or finding small state-owned projects and providing compensation and reparations.”
As a practical step towards unification, the military negotiators announced another achievement during the same talks held in Tripoli: the agreement of the Joint Military Commission (5+5) to “establish a mechanism to start the unification of some military departments and bodies.”
At the time, they reiterated that the military institution should stay away from political bickering and that mercenaries and foreign forces should be removed from the homeland.
At that time, al-Nadhuri team made a very dangerous and pivotal decision to go to Tripoli on the “security track” of resolving the Libyan crisis; “The military component in all of Libya, whatever the differences between them, is more capable of bridging the gap between them,” said General Ahmed al-Mismari, spokesman for the Libyan Army General Command. “Even if we put the terms of the deals in place, we will find members of the military establishment who are more committed, disciplined and committed to fulfilling their promises and agreements.”
In a post on his official Facebook page, Major General al-Mismari said: “The ability of the military institution to put aside their very big differences and set out for the higher goals on which the Libyan military doctrine is based, which is the protection of the homeland and the defending of its sovereignty and territorial integrity, is the fundamental point that makes the military institution more responsive to the call of reason and logic.”
Accordingly, Major General Ahmed Al-Mismari said that “the military track between the members of the 5+5 Committee is one of the most successful political, economic and other tracks.”
October
Months after the armed militias that controlled western Libya uprooted their violence against each other in repeated armed clashes that caused dozens of civilian deaths, General Abdel Razeq al-Nadhuri and Mohamed El Haddad resumed the security track in Tunisia on 14 October 2022, this time as part of a joint Libyan mission that came to attend an air war exhibition there, which has been widely welcomed by the international community.
On 24 October 2022, the UN Special Envoy to Libya Abdoulaye Bathily gave his first briefing to the UN Security Council since his appointment, in which he deplored the slow pace of resolving the Libyan crisis, both politically and economically, but praised the performance of the military on their security track.
At the time, Bathily announced a meeting of members of the Libyan Joint Military Commission (5+5), which he said would be held in the central Libyan city of Sirte.
On 27 October 2022, the meeting took place in the presence of the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UN Support Mission to Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, and an accompanying UN delegation, but the results of these talks have not yet been made public.
Ultimately, as the most successful of the three tracks of resolving the Libyan crisis, and despite the achievements made by the military along the way to stabilizing the country, the international community and the Libyans have joined together.
