On 19 January, American B-2 stealth bombers destroyed two ISIS camps approximately 44 km south-west of Sirte, dropping more than 100 precision-guided bombs on the targets. On 21 January, a VBIED exploded near the Italian embassy in Tripoli.

On 11 January, Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), was formally received aboard the Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia’s only aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. On 14 January, Haftar summoned the senior LNA commanders from the east, west and south of Libya for a high-level meeting with HoR President.

On 9 January, the Italian Foreign Ministry announced it was sending its ambassador back to Libya. It is the first Western diplomatic mission to reopen in the country.  The statement said the ambassador would present his credentials to the GNA on 10 January and would start work in Tripoli immediately.

Internationally, diplomacy efforts are gaining pace with Russia demanding a formal political role for Marshall Haftar, Algeria trying to broker dialogue between Haftar and the Islamists, and Egypt trying to pursue demands for amending the LPA and reforming the GNA.