Haftar arrived in Palermo

Palermo (Italy) (AFP) – An international conference on the future of chaotic Libya since 2011 opened Monday night in Palermo, in the presence of Marshal Haftar, a strongman from the east of the country. finally arrived in Sicily after a long suspense.

Marshal Khalifa Haftar was greeted shortly after 8:30 pm (1930 GMT) at Villa Igiea by the Italian Council President Giuseppe Conte, after having left some uncertainty over his participation in this international conference. He refused, however, to participate in the dinner offered by Mr. Conte. The latter, however, planned to meet him, along with other Libyan officials invited to Palermo, for a series of bilateral planned in the evening, according to an Italian official.

Marshal Haftar, who controls the east of the country, is reluctant to sit at the same table as some of the participants he considers Islamist extremists, also invited to Palermo, it was said in his entourage.

By prolonging the suspense about his participation, "Haftar has already managed to convince the Palermo conference of the importance of its role in any potential agreement (…) and strengthen its position as a key player in the Libyan crisis" said Mohamed ElJarh, a Libyan badyst.

In an attempt to launch an electoral and political process supposed to get the country out of the rut, this conference follows that of Paris last May which resulted in an agreement on a date, December 10, for the holding of national elections.

The United Nations, tasked with finding a solution to stabilize Libya, undermined by divisions and power struggles since the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, however, announced Thursday that the electoral process has been delayed and should ultimately start in the spring of 2019.

First meetings have already been held in Palermo in the afternoon, devoted to security, a strong theme of this conference, according to Italian Council President Giuseppe Conte.

"Security is a precondition for ensuring the country's stability," Conte said in an interview with La Stampa newspaper on Monday.

Mr. Conte met in the afternoon, before the official start of this conference, the UN envoy to Libya, Ghbadan Salamé.

As at the Paris Summit last May, Mr. Haftar was invited around the same table with the head of the internationally recognized National Union Government (GNA), Fayez al-Sarraj, the Speaker of Parliament, Aguila Salah, and that of the Council of State, equivalent of a upper house in Tripoli, Khaled al-Mechri.

The conference in Palermo, undermined by the tensions between Libyan factions, is also divided by the divisions between the different countries that are closely interested in Libya.

– "Unify the positions" –

In an interview with AFP on Thursday, Mr Sarraj hoped that the conference would lead to "a common vision vis-à-vis the Libyan issue", stressing "the need to unify the positions" of Paris and Rome.

After the meeting in Paris, Rome had criticized France for wanting to go it alone on Libya, led today by two rival entities: the GNA, resulting from a UN process based in Tripoli and an authority installed in the East supported by a Parliament elected in 2014 and an armed force led by Mr. Haftar.

In May, Paris had strongly pleaded for the holding of elections in December, meeting very quickly the skepticism on the Italian side, but also on the American side.

"We support the elections as soon as possible, but artificial deadlines and a hasty process would be counterproductive," said David Hale, number three US diplomat, at Washington's Middle East Institute.

An opinion shared by Salame who said Thursday before the UN Security Council that a national conference should be held in early 2019, burying the prospect of elections before the end of the year.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is expected in Palermo, as will the head of European diplomacy Federica Mogherini and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi. "France wishes the success of this conference," said Monday the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.