Military leaders from eastern and western Libya held a meeting in the city of Sirte (450 km east of Tripoli) on Sunday, with the aim of uniting the divided Libyan army, according to a statement by Saddam Haftar, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Eastern Libyan Forces, in a statement.

Saddam Haftar said, "We welcome the holding of the national meeting in Sirte, the city of the homeland, with the participation of Libyan military leaders," noting that the delegation of the Eastern Forces is led by its Chief of Staff Khaled Haftar, in addition to its Secretary-General Khairy Tamimi, while the delegation of the Western Region is headed by Chief of the General Staff Salah al-Din al-Nimroush.

He pointed to "the presence of members of the 5+5 Joint Military Commission and the 3+3 Committee, with the participation of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), and welcomed "the positive atmosphere that prevailed in this meeting, which comes in the context of national efforts aimed at unifying the military institution and ending the state of division with the support of international partners", according to Haftar, the son of General Khalifa Haftar.

Opening closed communication channels 7 years ago

The move is an extension of a series of sensitive meetings in Malta in recent weeks, bringing together senior officials from the East and West under direct U.S. auspices.

According to Libyan sources, the Malta meetings represented the first serious test to rebuild trust between the two parties, as they discussed joint security arrangements, border control mechanisms, and the restructuring of operations rooms, as part of a new political path that Washington seeks to consolidate.

The sources said that the Sirte military meeting is one of the outcomes of those meetings, which reopened the lines of communication between institutions that had been in a state of complete disconnect since 2019.

U.S. power-sharing initiative

These developments coincide with a growing US push to implement the US power-sharing initiative, which is based on merging the two rival governments into a single government headed by Abdelhamid Dbeibah and forming a new presidential council headed by Saddam Haftar, redistributing political and military influence between the East and the West.

The initiative, which is being marketed as a solution to end the political deadlock in Libya, is the most prominent background that explains the acceleration of military meetings, as Washington sees the unification of the military as a prerequisite for the success of any new political arrangements.

Sirte... Testing the seriousness of the parties

The Presidential Council stressed that the meeting represents an extension of confidence-building efforts, while Saddam Haftar praised "the efforts made by the United States of America, including the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), along with the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), in supporting efforts aimed at building a unified and professional Libyan military institution, in a way that enhances Libya's security and stability and preserves its sovereignty and territorial integrity."

Saddam Haftar stressed that "the unification of the military institution on national and professional foundations represents a fundamental goal to protect the homeland and preserve its sovereignty."

"We will continue to work with all seriousness and responsibility in order to build strong and effective institutions, protect Libya's territory and borders, and consolidate the unity of the national ranks, leading to a unified Libyan army capable of performing its duties in defending the homeland and the citizen," he said, but the statement did not clarify the outcomes of the meeting and its findings.

Two armies and two governments. What is going on in Libya?

The army in Libya is divided into two parts: one in the east of the country led by Khalifa Haftar, and the other in the west under the leadership of the Government of National Unity, and the military is conducting a dialogue under the auspices of the United Nations Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) with the aim of unifying it, as part of the efforts of the 5+5 Joint Military Commission, which consists of five military personnel from each side.

The dialogue comes in implementation of the ceasefire agreement signed in Geneva, Switzerland, in October 2020, between the warring parties to the Libyan conflict at the time.

Recently, under the auspices of security, the 3+3 Committee was formed, a security and military committee consisting of three representatives from each side, which is the first joint committee for unified security and military action between the two parties, and is specialized in developing plans to combat terrorism and organized crime and secure the borders on the entire Libyan territory.

The UN mission is also leading another dialogue aimed at bringing Libya to elections that resolve the crisis of the conflict between two governments, one of which is the Government of National Unity headed by Abdel Hamid Dbeibeh, based in Tripoli in the west of the country, from which it manages the whole of western Libya, and the other appointed by the House of Representatives in early 2022, headed by Osama Hammad, based in Benghazi in the east of the country, and manages the whole of eastern Libya and most of the cities in the south.