Bathily’s initiative for Libya … Mediation or guardianship?

Mustafa Mohamed

The briefing given by Abdoulaye Bathily, head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, to the UN Security Council has brought renewed controversy to the Libyan scene.

Bathily said he would form a high-level steering committee to adopt a legal framework and a binding timetable for holding elections in Libya in 2023.

Guardianship or mediation

The UN envoy did not provide details about his initiative, but he promised to form a high-level steering committee in an attempt to end an impasse that began a year ago and threatens to renew the conflict in Libya.

Nevertheless, observers say his proposal may open the door for guardianship, not mediation, on Libya on the road to ending the internal crisis in the country.

This may be one reason why the Libyan House of Representatives and Prime Minister Fathi Bashagha rejected Bathily’s proposal.

The UN envoy’s briefing included fallacies regarding the failure of the Houses of Representatives and the State Council to approve the constitutional rule, the House of Representatives said in a statement.

It said the proposal stood in contradiction with paragraphs in the same briefing that acknowledged the issuance of the constitutional amendment, which was carried out in consultation with the State Council.

Welcome

Immediately after Bathily made his briefing to the UN Security Council, the German ambassador to Libya welcomed it.

He underscored his country’s support for the efforts of the UN envoy to hold elections in Libya this year.

However, Libyan affairs specialist Mohamed Qeshout accused the House of Representatives and the State Council of standing behind the crisis in Libya.

“Bathily’s briefing is motivated by the American and Western desire to drag the Libyan people towards a guardianship that reaches the enactment of laws to hold elections according to their desire and not the desire of the Libyans,” Qeshout told The Reference.

Reshaping Libyan crisis

Ahmed Ulaibah, a researcher at Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, confirms in a study titled ‘Is the role of the UN mission in Libya shifting from mediation to guardianship?’ that Bathily’s initiative reshapes the Libyan crisis in another way, instead of solving it.

He points out that it is conceivable that pushing the Libyan political process needs an initiative to save it.

“Nonetheless, saving any political process requires a more active role for mediation and dialogue to bring the parties closer,” Ulaibah said.

“It seems that the UN envoy was conducting dialogues with various parties in the framework of listening only, to decide for himself later what to do without referring to those parties,” he added.

He noted that this confirms the hypothesis of guardianship.