The key meetings held in Paris between Sarraj and Haftar between 23 and 25 in July were held at Celle Saint - Cloud, far from the Eliseo, far from the spotlight. The French Government has worked astonishly and led the diplomatic phase in a magisterial way. To facilitate talks, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian's gave precise indications to accommodate the two delegations in the same hotel, Sofitel.
In this very reserved hotel, the two delegations were able to negotiate for more than 10 hours on the joint statement which was then finally released on the 25 July evening.
Prime Minister Sarraj, accompanied by his foreign minister, Mohamed Taher Siala and his personal adviser, Tahar El Sonni, has been entrusted with his deputy foreign minister, Lofti El Maghrebi, for the rest of his time. But who is El Magrebi? A diplomatic expert who served in the Libyan Embassy in Paris and in many other West African countries. He is the one who has experience selling on French thinking and speaking and is the right man, wanted by the French, alongside who will lead the Libyan country.
El Magrebi has been described as the next successor to the current Libyan ambassador to France, Alshiabani Mansour Abuhamoud, who is in turn being called to Tripoli to conduct a delicate mission related to the efforts to stabilize southern Libya.
Even Haftar, however, had his "sherpa," the businessman Dira. Dira was the first to take off from Tunisia to Paris, just after the "summit" was confirmed. Dira has been the emissary between France and Libya for more than a decade. A former Mirage pilot of Gaddafi Air Force, a military clerk in Paris, then traveled to various aerospace business, finally landing at the French company Dassaut.
During and after the 2011 he was the link between his Zintan tribe and the French Defense Ministry who completely relied on Zintan for diplomatic efforts in Libya. Go, everyone knows they can open many gates in Paris.
In addition to Dira, Haftar entrusted himself to a political advisor, Fadhel El Dib, who was seen alongside the delegation at Celle Saint Cloud. He is a captain, son of one of his army generals.
The joint statement, published after the meetings between Sarraj and Haftar, did not cause any resentment on the part of Libyan politicians and military. The French have also been very clever in the text. French President Macron and his foreign policy advisers Aurelien Lechevallier and Ahlem Gharbi wanted to include in the text a footnote for the ceasefire, except for counter-terrorism operations. And so they wrote. Attentive observers read in the annotation that Tripoli's armed forces and Western armies will be excluded from direct conflicts; in doing so Haftar will be able to continue his military advance towards Dern under the pretext of fighting the Jihadists. Misrata militias and Kalifa Ghwell militias fighting with pro Sarraj forces in Tripoli were also not specifically mentioned in the agreement.
The statement also provides for a national amnesty, a "escamotage" explicitly required by many brigade commanders to avoid the responsibility of actions committed during and after the riots, following the deposition of Gaddafi's regime.
For the rest, Sarraj and Haftar have agreed to implement the Skhirat agreement, signed at the end of the 2015 but never completed. The statement also mentions the forthcoming elections but does not foresee the period. The two leaders never told Macron that they had reached an agreement on the date in the 2018 spring, which would be appreciated, however, at Sarraj.
Photo La Stampa