Leaders of the main countries involved in the Libya conflict committed on Sunday, January 19, in Berlin to respect the arms embargo decided in 2011 by the United Nations and to renounce any foreign 'interference' in the conflict.

During a conference under UN auspices in Berlin, eleven countries including Russia and Turkey agreed that there is no 'military solution' to this conflict, which has torn Libya apart for nearly 10 years, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared at the end of a half-day of discussions.

Participants also called for a genuine permanent ceasefire on the ground, which has been awaited despite the entry into force on January 12 of a fragile truce between belligerents.

To ensure the effective and lasting respect of the end of hostilities, inter-Libyan meetings between military representatives of the two camps should be organized in the coming weeks. An invitation will be issued "in the coming days," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres assured.

For the consolidation of the ceasefire, the UN envoy had called on the two rival camps to form a "Military Commission" composed of ten officers, five from each side. This commission will be tasked with defining the mechanisms for implementing the ceasefire on the ground.

Respect for the arms embargo

Participants also agreed to "respect" strictly the arms embargo and that "this embargo would be monitored more strictly than before," the chancellor explained during a joint press conference with Antonio Guterres and the UN envoy in Libya, Ghassan Salamé. The embargo was decreed in 2011 by the UN but has largely remained a dead letter.

"We have witnessed an escalation in the conflict. It has reached a dangerous dimension in recent days," Antonio Guterres pointed out, highlighting the "risk of a genuine regional escalation."

Another sensitive point in the conflict: the more or less direct interventions of foreign countries in this conflict. "All participants also committed to refraining from interference in the armed conflict or internal affairs of Libya," Mr. Guterres indicated.

Turkey is indeed militarily supporting the government of Fayez el-Sarraj in Tripoli and Russia, despite its denials, is suspected of backing the strongman of eastern Libya, Marshal Khalifa Haftar.

Since the resumption of fighting between rival camps in Libya in April 2019, more than 280 civilians and 2,000 combatants have been killed and, according to the UN, more than 170,000 residents have been displaced.

■ From Tripoli : An embargo never respected until now

On RFI, last week, the head of the UN mission, Ghassan Salamé, accused a dozen states of having sent weapons to Libya since the beginning of the year. Khalifa Haftar's offensive on April 4 on Tripoli further accelerated weapons deliveries, which have become a sport for both sides.

The violation of the embargo is considered so normal in Libya that the arrival of weapons is sometimes staged. Last May, 58 anti-mine armored vehicles from Turkey made their entry into the port of Tripoli in front of cameras. In Khalifa Haftar's camp, they are not far behind. In 2017, an Irish navy patrol vessel, labeled as a leisure yacht by a United Arab Emirates company, ended up in the port of Benghazi where it was immediately armed with 40mm machine guns.

With the offensive on Tripoli, a new type of weapon appeared in large quantities: drones. The Tripoli government is being supplied Turkish drones that often arrive in containers at the port of Misrata. Haftar's self-proclaimed Libyan National Army benefits from drones of Chinese design supplied by the United Arab Emirates.

Beyond weapons, both camps also appeal to foreign mercenaries. Sudanese fighters joined Haftar's ranks through a contract between a Canadian company and Khartoum leaders. In the west, Chadian mercenaries crossed the border without difficulty to defend Tripoli. In Berlin on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron denounced the presence of Syrian fighters sent by Ankara alongside pro-Tripoli forces.

Every year since 2011, UN experts have documented repeated and flagrant violations of the arms embargo. 2020 should not escape the tradition.