World powers gathered in Germany to discuss the Libyan crisis by guaranteeing that the general elections will surely be held on December 24. Representatives of Libya’s provisional government has joined US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as well as the foreign ministers of France and Egypt at the United Nations-sponsored talks in Berlin. The UN estimates 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries are still in Libya which is an existence understood as a hazard to the UN-recognized transition leading to the elections. After Gaddafi, the country was consequently divided between the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in the capital, Tripoli, and a rival administration based in the country’s east, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments. In April 2019, rebel military commander Khalifa Haftar and his eastern-based forces launched an aggressive to try to capture Tripoli. His 14-month-long campaign distorted after Turkey stepped up its support of the Tripoli government with progressive military hardware, troops and thousands of mercenaries. In October last year, the two camps decided to a ceasefire in Geneva. The security situation in Libya has been gradually improving. However, the UN lately cautioned development has stalled, particularly on an important obligation of the polls in order to pullout all foreign soldiers.
Western leaders have frequently called on the foreign fighters to leave. But Russian mercenaries supporting Haftar’s side in the east are still in place. Turkey has troops in Tripoli, which it claims were sent under a bilateral agreement with the government, suggesting that they are not affected by an appeal for foreign troops to leave. But any withdrawal is also a subtle balancing act according to German foreign minister.
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