Covert row between France and Algeria about how best to settle Libya’s crisis

A covert dispute between France and Algeria is underway about how best to resolve the lingering Libyan crisis with some African countries allied to France now overtly endorsing the long-upheld French military approach regarding this issue.

After a meeting with French defense minister Ives Le Drian, the Niger president Mohamed voiced his country’s backing for France’s position which pushes for a military intervention to settle the Libyan crisis.

A war-like stand not shared however by the President of Chad Idriss Deby who backed Algeria’s wise position which favours an inclusive dialogue involving the Libyan protagonists as the best way of hammering out a lasting solution to the Libyan conflict beyond any foreign interference in the country’s internal affairs.

Algeria’s sensible position advocating dialogue and concertation among the parties at issue in Libya was clearly expounded in several press statements by Foreign affairs minister, Ramtane Lamamra,  despite insidious  leverage by the French side to prompt neighbouring countries to change course and to opt for a military intervention in Libya.

France called for international military action to end the chaos in Libya, which is becoming a “terrorist hub”, according to Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Libya’s neighbours have voiced concern that the conflict between militias and the Libyan government feeding into the rise of jihadist networks but they are not pushing for an international intervention in the country, despite France’s pressures.

 “We cannot allow ourselves more time before acting,” he said. “The situation is degrading daily. Chaos is setting in and threats are getting clearer. There are threats to the stability of the Sahel; threats to neighbouring countries, he asserted.”

Libya has been sliding into chaos since Moammar Kadhafi was overthrown in a 2011 Nato-backed intervention, in which France played a major role:

“The time has come for diplomatic and political action,” Le Drian said.

“This must be collective action, and clearly must be done primarily with Libya’s neighbours – I am thinking of Egypt, Algeria and of the countries south of Libya,” he added.

Le Drian said that cooperation must become the rule and no longer the exception.

“The threat feeds off the absence of borders and their porous nature. Southern Libya is today the most dramatic example,” he said, referring to the regrouping of extremist movements since French military intervention helped drive them from towns in northern Mali in 2013.

“The situation in the south of Libya today is a source of destabilization for the whole of the Sahel belt of nations on the southern edge of the Sahara,” he argued.