Misrata and Zintan, the two cities that fought for the hegemony of Tripoli, have signed a reconciliation agreement in some ways considered historic.
The meetings between the parties began on Wednesday 28 March, when the leaders of Misrata went to Zintan, located at 170 km south-east of Tripoli. During the meeting, the two cities underlined the need to achieve national reconciliation throughout the national territory, avoiding clashes, violence and coups. Both sides reiterated the rebuilding of the state, uniting the armed forces and institutions and subjugating the army and the police to a civil authority, as well as fighting terrorism.
At the end of the discussions, the mayor of Zintan, Mustafa Al-Barouni, issued an official statement, in which he defined the agreement reached as "historic". On that occasion, Al-Barouni announced: "The meeting is the first step, which will be followed by others. No more weapons will be used to resolve the conflicts ". For his part, the Misurata Military Council, Mohamad Rajab, said that this first session would facilitate "reconciliation with other regions and tribes".
The agreement also provides for the establishment of a committee to deal with some fundamental issues, including the fate of prisoners and those who have disappeared. This body will be set up before the next meeting between the leaders of the two cities, to be held in Misurata, located at 200 km east of Tripoli.
The two cities were among the first to rise up against the government of Colonel Muammar Gadhafi, who had been killed in Sirte on 21 October 2011, after having ruled Libya from the 1969. In the early months of 2012 Zintan and Misrata had become independent from Tripoli. Shortly after the start of the revolution, in August of the 2011, two months before the Colonel's death, the rebels of the two cities had taken control of the Libyan capital. Initially, the two factions had shared the strategic positions of Tripoli, up to 2014, a year in which a coalition led by Misrata had forced the leaders of Zintan to abandon the territory, after weeks of violent clashes.