By Abdullah Al-Kabir, a Libyan writer

Abdullah Al-Kabir

It does not seem that the Dbeibah’s government has a clear-cut plan towards the countries involved in the Libyan crisis, although the recent visits to the Emirates, Turkey and Russia reflect recognition of their profound influence, and Dbeibah’s desire to reach some understandings with them in order to bring about some modification in their positions or neutralize them if possible, so do not put through their local agents any obstacles in the way of the government towards unifying state institutions and achieving some relief in internal crises.

The visit to the Gulf states was limited to only two countries, namely Kuwait and the Emirates, and the foreign minister was not among the delegation, which was limited to figures from the prime minister's family! What gives rise to doubts about the usefulness of the visit, and was it of a political nature? As long as the rulers of the Emirates have not issued a clear and declared position to support the political transformation in Libya through elections, the visit is meaningless and has no value. This round should not have excluded any country and started with Saudi Arabia as the largest and most influential country capable of crystallizing a Gulf position in support of stability in Libya.

The large delegation visiting Turkey reveals the importance of relations with a reliable ally that has a solid economic, military and scientific base, as well as its regional influence, which calls for concluding more agreements with it and activating the precedent to take advantage of its great potential, and also to ensure the continuation of its political position rejecting military coups and the seizure of power by force, so Turkey is able, with this position, to establish a state of balance in the political and military conflict, and push their opponents to be convinced of the futility of the coup option, and then return to dialogue and negotiations, and this is what happened with the previous Government of National Accord, which resulted in defeating Haftar's forces and his supporters away from the capital and the Libyan west.

The visit to Russia, the Minister of Oil and the Chief of Staff of the Army was accompanied by the Prime Minister, meaning that the oil file and armament contracts were the most important items of negotiations with the Russian side, as Russia wants to obtain a suitable share for its companies from investment contracts in the oil and gas sector, and it has previous contracts to supply weapons to Gaddafi and it were frozen due to the February Revolution and the fall of Gaddafi. But was Russia's violent intervention only for its economic interests? And it is not among Putin's strategies for geopolitical expansion in the region, restoring the former international role of the Soviet Union, driven by what it has achieved in Syria, and the fulfillment of an old dream that relied on the Soviets to gain a foothold on the warm waters of the south of the Mediterranean in the side of the southern flank of NATO?

Dbeibah's foreign tours did not include Greece, there is no interest or motive to visit it, as it is an ineffective country and has no papers in the Libyan crisis, and when the Greek Prime Minister failed to obtain what he wanted when he visited Tripoli, hoping to persuade Dbeibah to cancel the maritime memorandum of understanding between Libya and Turkey, he invited The Head of the Presidential Council, Mohammad Menfi, who had previously expelled him while he was ambassador to Libya in Athens, thinking that he would extract from him a promise to cancel the memorandum of understanding concluded between the AL-Sarraj government and the Turkish government, but Menfi indicated to the Greek government that the Geneva agreement does not grant him the right to conclude any international agreements or treaties, or to conclude new agreements, and all that the new authority can do is to initiate bilateral discussions on the maritime borders between Libya and Greece, and if the talks succeed the next elected authority shall assume Its culmination by concluding an agreement that preserves the rights of the two countries.

Despite the importance of communicating with the countries involved in the crisis to push them towards positive intervention while ensuring their interests, this should go in parallel with addressing the living crises suffered by people, foremost among which is combating the Coronavirus pandemic, the provision of cash liquidity and the solution to the crisis of electricity outages, without ignoring the Parliament’s reluctance to approve the budget in order for the government to start implementing some of its promises, time is running out, and if the government is sincere in adhering to the election date, it must take advantage of the international support it received in obtaining approval of the budget from Parliament, or requesting the UN mission to refer the matter to the Political Dialogue Committee.

 

Disclaimer:  The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Libya Observer

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