Anti — 7 Dec 2016

Dec 7, 2015 | Libyan actors

There are mildly encouraging  developments on coalition building against ISIS. At the tactical military level, the appointment of Brigadier General Abdussalam Al-Hassi as LNA commander in Benghazi is encouraging.  Al-Hassi was previously the commander of LNA operations in Derna where he has performed well and succeeded in getting anti-ISIS Islamist militias  to work together with anti-Islamist Haftar forces. In short, Hassi represents the “broad Mosque” model that is needed to forge any feasible anti-ISIS coaltion in Benghazi.

At the high political level, the emergence of the Libyan-Libyan dialogue “declaration of principles” in Tunis is calculated as an alternative to derail the UN process which might actually lead to joint action on the ground on behalf of pro-GNC and pro-HoR militias. To date, nothing has happened operationally and there is no military component to the declaration of principles, but it could emerge.