LIBYA's elected parliament has announced it will continue to cooperate with the United Nations in its efforts to bring peace and stability to the country. Both have been eluding this North African nation ever since strongman Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in a Western-assisted popular uprising four years ago. In the immediate aftermath of the ouster of the longtime dictator, the problem was the challenge posed by numerous armed militias to the authority of the central government. The picture changed completely last summer when an armed faction called Libya Dawn took over the capital city Tripoli and set up its own administration there, expelling the internationally recognized government. Libya Dawn is a loose alliance of former rebel brigades and Islamist-leaning groups. So now we have a situation where two rival governments and armed factions owing allegiance to either of the two groups or none are battling for the control of this oil-rich nation. The internationally recognized government and elected House of Representatives operate in the eastern city of Tobruk while the self-declared government and the reinstated former parliament known as the General National Congress or GNC are based in Tripoli. The UN is working on a power-sharing deal aimed at ending the conflict between the two rival centers of power. After months of negotiations in Europe, Algeria and Morocco, the UN talks have reached a delicate stage though fighting continues on the ground. The UN proposal calls for a one-year-long government of national accord, where a council of ministers headed by a prime minister with two deputies will have executive authority. The House of Representatives will be the legislative body, but a 120-member consultative body, State Council, will also be created. Some 90 members of the new chamber will come from the Tripoli GNC Congress. The House of Representatives has proposed some amendments to the deal. They want to water down the powers of the proposed second chamber and make its membership more balanced between the two factions. Bernardino León, the UN Special Representative for Libya, has expressed the hope negotiations in Skhirat, Morocco, will be the final round. The talks are based on a fourth draft proposal he presented to the parties two weeks ago. León said all the participants in the dialogue have accepted this as the basis for a final political solution. Western countries are as anxious as Libyans to see a semblance of normalcy return to Libya because they are largely responsible for the chaos that followed the toppling of Gaddafi. Some people say the West lost its interest in Libya after the murder of the US ambassador in Benghazi but this is to ignore the West's role in creating the anarchical situation that led to the Benghazi terror attack. The 2012 assault on US Consulate that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans took place, of all days, on Sept. 11. Another factor is that Libya has become a staging ground for smugglers who load rock boats with refugees and migrants desperate to reach Europe. Almost daily rickety fishing boats leave the Libyan coast for Europe. Sometimes they reach their destination, sometimes they sink, killing people. The irony is that among the migrants are those who came to the oil-rich Libya to escape poverty at home. European powers plan to use submarines, aircraft, ships and drones in their anti-smuggling operation, but both rival factions are wary of international missions in their waters. But an even more important worry for the Western countries is the reports that amid the chaos, the Daesh (so- called IS) is gaining ground in Libya. Here a note of caution is necessary. Extremism of the kind represented by Daesh and other radical groups should be defeated but this should not lead to a situation where the West throws its weight behind anybody, an individual or organization, who uses terrorism as a pretext to eliminate their rivals and impose their will by force.
