25 Apr – 1 May: Foreign support for Libyan elections while US and Libya sign MoI and LoA

May 1, 2018 | International actors

On 30 April, the Libya Quartet – the EU, AU, Arab League and UN – said it supports Libya holding presidential and parliamentary elections this year. The statement also stressed the need for a unified army under civilian control.

On 29 April, Egypt and France said that they agreed that elections should be held in Libya before the end of 2018 in order to make the most of the ‘relative progress’ there. This followed a meeting between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in Cairo.

On 27 April, representatives from the US and Libya’s Government of National Accord, that included Libya’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Siala and US Charge d’Affairs Stephanie Williams, signed a Memorandum of Intent (MoI) for airport security and a Letter of Agreement (LoA) to support Libyan policing, prisons and justice sector development. The agreements will see the provision of technical assistance via training for criminal justice while seeing the installation of a system for authenticating travel documents at airport customs and borders. This follows the two countries signing a cultural property protection Memorandum of Understanding to impose restrictions on the import of Libyan cultural property to the US on 23 February.