Europe Said Poised to Call on Libyan Warlord to Halt Offensive

(Bloomberg) -- The European Union will call on Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar to stop his advance on Tripoli, after accepting French additions to an earlier draft of a bloc statement.

While Paris wants the offensive to be halted, it felt the document’s original wording put too much blame on the Benghazi-based general, who’s a French ally, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. French officials presented amendments expressing concern over the involvement of other militias in the fighting, demanding all sides sign up for United Nations peace talks, and calling for the protection of civilians.

The amendments were presented late Wednesday, and a new text circulating among delegates could be made public on Thursday, the people said.

Haftar has already ignored calls from world powers to stop his advance on Tripoli and is unlikely to be shaken by the EU’s declaration. France and Britain played a key role in the NATO-backed uprising that overthrew Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, but their influence in the North African oil producer has been eclipsed as Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the U.A.E., Turkey and Qatar entered the fray, at times backing rival factions.

Dozens of people have died since last week when Haftar began his campaign, and Libya has again roiled oil markets. France is now in an awkward spot. The French have provided military support for the warlord, who’s subdued militants in southern Libya that threaten former French colonies south of the Sahara. At the same time, President Emmanuel Macron’s administration has hosted two summits to support the UN’s political process -- which Haftar has signed up to while also treating it with disdain.

“Haftar has represented France’s Libya policy, they believed that he represented stability,” said Tarek Megerisi, a researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations in London. “The French thought they could build the political process around Haftar, which took quite a bit of dissonance given that he’s never hidden what he thought of the whole thing.”

France’s involvement in the Libya crisis has at times chafed with Italy. Successive Italian governments have wanted a dominant role because they’ve been most affected by migrant flows and disrupted energy supplies from their former colony. While France and Italy have recently appeared united in public in calling for a political solution, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini tweeted on Thursday that he won’t “stand by” if it turns out that France blocked a “European initiative to bring peace to Libya.”

Four EU members -- France, Germany, Britain, and Italy -- signed up to a G-7 foreign ministers’ statement last weekend that expressed “deepest concern about military operations near Tripoli” and urged “all involved parties to immediately halt all military activity and movements” toward the capital. Unlike the EU statement set for release, the G-7 didn’t mention Haftar specifically.

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.