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Africa North
Libyan rivals urged to agree quick power-sharing deal in Berlin meeting
2015-06-11
BERLIN -- Libya’s rival factions faced strong pressure to agree quickly to a power-sharing deal for the fractured North African country as they met Wednesday in Berlin with officials from world powers. The Berlin meeting brought together nearly two dozen Libyan participants in ongoing UN-brokered talks with the Libya envoys of the five permanent UN Security Council members, Italy, Spain and the European Union.

“The time has come to make an agreement,” Bernardino Leon, the UN envoy leading talks aimed at stemming Libya’s collapse into a failed state, told reporters. “We can continue working for months and for years maybe to reach a perfect agreement, but Libya doesn’t have the time.”
But the UN sure does...
Libya is split between a government backed by militias that seized the capital of Tripoli last August and its elected parliament, which is forced to convene in the country’s far east. The extremist Daesh has gained a foothold amid the chaos, taking the central city of Sirte.
In other words, how Libya generally was divided before the Italians came in...
The Berlin meeting came amid signs of deep division in the elected parliament over the latest, fourth draft of a power-sharing agreement proposed by Leon.

Spokesmen for the parliament and its negotiating team have said they are suspending participation in the UN talks, arguing the proposal gives certain factions too much of a say. However, negotiators who traveled to Berlin issued a statement saying it has “many positive elements.”

Leon said that “the principles of inclusion, balance and consensus are there at every step, (in) every institution.”
Three principles that strangely aren't universally accepted throughout the Middle East. I wonder why...
The general opinion of Libyan representatives was that “this proposal might be acceptable, and this is in both camps,” though there are hardliners on both sides, Leon added.

“The challenge is not only that they agree on this draft, but that they agree soon, that they agree if possible before or at the beginning of Ramadan,” late next week, he said.

“We said that the time has come when there are no more excuses,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said. “There is no more time to wait for a fifth or sixth proposal from Bernardino Leon.”
Posted by:Steve White

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