United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is recommending that international monitors be deployed to Libya under a U.N. umbrella to observe the October cease-fire agreement from a base in the strategic northern city of Sirte, the gateway to the country's major oil fields and export terminals.
The U.N. chief’s statements surfaced on the same day that forces loyal to putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar attacked a military base of the country’s legitimate Government of National Accord (GNA) in southwestern Sabha province.
Ahmed el-Atayibi, sixth brigade commander-general, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that Haftar militia attacked them in their base in Sabha but that the attack was thwarted. "Some light arms and two Libyan youth who were deceived to fight among their ranks were seized," el-Atayibi stated.
Saying that there were also Sudanese Janjaweed militias among Haftar’s forces, el-Atayibi pointed out that the attackers came from central Jufra, 365 kilometers (226.8 miles) to the northeast. Meanwhile, Abdulhadi Dirah, spokesperson for the Libyan Army's Sirte-
The U.N. chief said in an interim report to the Security Council on proposed cease-fire monitoring arrangements circulated Monday that an advance team should be sent to Libya’s capital Tripoli as a first step to "provide the foundations for a scalable United Nations cease-fire monitoring mechanism based in Sirte."
Oil-rich Libya was plunged into chaos after a 2011 NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi and split the country between a U.N.-supported government in Tripoli and rival authorities based in the country’s east.
In April 2019, east-based Haftar and his forces, backed by Egypt, France, Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), launched an offensive to try and capture Tripoli. His campaign collapsed after Turkey stepped up its military support of the U.N.-supported government.
The warring sides reached a cease-fire on Oct. 23 in Geneva under which all foreign forces are to leave within three months – that is, by Jan. 23. The international observers would monitor their departure.
In early December, U.N. special envoy to Libya Stephanie Williams estimated that 20,000 foreign troops and mercenaries remained in the country in a "shocking violation of Libyan sovereignty."
Guterres gave few details of the monitoring mechanism but said the Joint Military Commission, with five representatives from each of the rival sides, "has requested unarmed, nonuniformed individual international monitors to be deployed under the auspices of the United Nations." They would work alongside joint monitoring teams from the rival Tripoli and eastern governments "for specific monitoring and verification tasks," he said.
"The Libyan parties have also conveyed their firm position that no deployment of foreign forces of any kind, including United Nations uniformed personnel, should occur on Libyan territory," the secretary-general said. But the commission welcomed offers of potential support to the monitoring mechanism from regional organizations including the African Union, the European Union and the Arab League under U.N. auspices.
According to the military commission’s concept, "the United Nations would be expected to provide a nimble and scalable team of impartial international monitors to carry out monitoring" in the Sirte area, Guterres said.
In the commission's view, he said, they would "initially provide oversight and report compliance along the coastal road on the removal of military forces and mercenaries, the deployment of the joint police force, the clearance of explosive remnants of war, booby traps and mines."
"As soon as conditions permit, they would expand their monitoring work to the Abu Grein-Bin Jawad-Sawknah triangle and possibly beyond," Guterres said.
He pointed to military activities as well as military cargo flights, impeding the agreement's implementation.
"A lasting cease-fire in Libya needs above all else the buy-in of the parties and of ordinary Libyans," the secretary-general said, and it also requires support from regional and international parties.
He urged implementation of the widely broken U.N. arms embargo.
Guterres said the deployment of monitors under the umbrella of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) to the area around Sirte would require funding and personnel from U.N. member states.
Tunisia’s U.N. Ambassador Tarek Ladeb, the current council president, said Monday he hopes a resolution on a cease-fire monitoring mechanism will be adopted before council members discuss UNSMIL on Jan. 28.
"We hope that it will be adopted as soon as possible" because "there is a momentum, yet it's a little bit fragile," said Ladeb, referring to the negotiations between Libyan parties and the U.N. mission there.