Arab Summit: Algeria Intensifies Efforts To Stabilize Libya

Algeria intensified its efforts, during the preparatory meetings of the Arab Foreign Ministers, in the Jordanian capital of Amman, so that the Libyan crisis will be at the top of the files that will be discussed by Arab Presidents and Kings at the summit, which will be held here on Wednesday.

In this regard, the Minister of Maghreb Affairs, the African Union and the Arab League, met with his Tunisian counterpart, Khamis Jahinaoui, on the sidelines of the preparatory ministerial meeting of the 147 th Session of the Arab League’s Council.

A statement by the Algerian Foreign Ministry said the talks dealt with the most important issues on the agenda of the Arab summit, and the developments in Libya, and the ongoing efforts to support the stalled political settlement process in the eastern neighbor.

The meeting aimed to coordinate the efforts of the two countries to seek an Arab support for the initiative to resolve the Libyan crisis, which was the focus of an earlier meeting between Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt Foreign Minister, at the Arab Summit, which is attracted by many files including the crisis in Yemen, Syria and Iraq.

Mesahel also met with the representative of the US Secretary of State, Donald Trump, to the Arab Summit, on the sidelines of the Foreign Ministers’ Summit, and they discussed the Libyan crisis and the ways to curb the spread of violent extremism in the region, and other issues, including the Palestinian issue. 

Algerian Minister is expected to meet with the Russian envoy to the Arab summit.

Algeria, along with Tunisia and Egypt, are keen to give the Libyan file the attention it deserves, especially in light of the large number of files that are submitted by the Arab Foreign Ministers to the summit of Presidents and Kings, which reached 17 recommendations, while different views dominated on resolving the Libyan crisis.

Differences in the Arab countries’ positions on resolving the Libyan issue have complicated the crisis, as Egypt and the United Arab Emirates stand behind the retired General Khalifa Haftar and the internationally recognized government of Tobruk, while Qatar stands beside the government of the presidential council in Tripoli, which is led by Faiz Serraj, and that is supported by the United Nations, and Algeria stands at a distance from gathering all the parties and looking for a solution that does not exclude any party.

The situation was complicated by the involvement of the Russian bear in the Libyan file and its bias towards one side at the expense of another, as Haftar visited Moscow and the Russian Defense Minister visited Benghazi earlier, threatening to clone a new Syrian crisis near the country’s eastern border.

However, the distinguished relations between Algeria and Moscow, on the one hand, and Algeria’s non-partisan position on any of the parties to the conflict in Libya, would play in favor of efforts to stop the fighting in Libya.