Western 4 Oct 16

Oct 4, 2016 | International actors

On 3 October, France hosted a meeting of international and regional foreign ministers in Paris, with the aim of re-aligning the international community’s diplomatic efforts towards Libya. The meeting came at the request of PM Fayez al-Serraj, after he met with the French president last week. Serraj reportedly found it difficult to convince French officials of the GNA’s ability to reach a workable agreement with the HoR and Haftar for unified command over the Libyan Army.

Representatives from Egypt, Germany, Italy, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain Turkey UAE, UK and the USA attended the meeting, as well as UN Special Envoy Martin Kobler and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. No Libyan participants were invited. Egypt sent a low-level delegation to the meeting and reportedly called for the international arms embargo on Libya to be lifted.