Splits crop up amid UN-proposed Libya peace deal

PanARMENIAN.Net - After months of stalled negotiations, the United Nations has handed Libya's warring factions a unity government proposal in what it calls a major step towards ending the crisis, but the applause of Western officials cannot disguise serious obstacles, according to Reuters.

The proposal is just that, one hinging on the approval of both sides, and hardliners may treat a weak accord as a chance to drag Libya and its oil wealth deeper into war and division.

Already splits are cropping up. Voices in both camps have criticized a proposal some say the UN wants to impose. Others have flatly rejected the deal despite warnings that naysayers will be internationally isolated and maybe even sanctioned.

Those responses may be posturing. But a failure to secure a national government could be disastrous for a North African OPEC state already deeply fractured from the internecine fighting that emerged from the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

Libya's once robust oil production has been crippled by fighting, its foreign reserves are evaporating and Western nations are wary of the growing presence of Islamic State militants and people traffickers using the chaos to expand.

For a year, the capital Tripoli has been under the control of a loose alliance of armed factions known as Libya Dawn. They set up their own self-declared government and reinstated the former parliament, the General National Congress, or the GNC.

Libya's internationally recognized government and elected parliament have operated out of the east of sprawling Libya, backed by a coalition including a divisive ex-Gaddafi general, Khalifa Haftar, former rebels and federalist forces.

UN envoy Bernardino Leon has proposed six members for a presidential council to head up the unity government, including delegates from both factions, but acknowledged those names were a UN suggestion based on the talks.

Members of the elected House of Representatives also appear split and they were expected to take a vote shortly.

More important will be reactions of the armed actors on the ground, where a myriad of brigades of former rebels who once fought together against Gaddafi now dominate different cities and regions in lieu of a real army.

Negotiations were complex because neither side is fully united, and among their armed backers are commanders opposed to a peace deal with hated rivals, or more loyal to regional and tribal interests than any national government.

Misrata council, whose military faction has backed Libya Dawn in Tripoli, endorsed the UN proposal. But the rival military council in the western city of Zintan rebuffed it and called for Libyan-only talks.