Libyan Army Retakes Tripoli as Warring Parties Resume Truce Talks

Libya's UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) declared itself in full control of Tripoli on Thursday after recapturing the capital's airport a day before, all but driving Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) from the capital following a string of significant losses in western Libya ahead of what appeared to be a move towards talks on a truce. Fayez al-Serraj’s GNA said its forces had captured the airport - long out of use - and pushed the LNA into the neighbouring Qasr Ben Gashir district, in the strongest symbolic victory for the Libyan government. An LNA military source confirmed its forces had withdrawn and the GNA controlled the airport. The announcement came a day after the UN announced that the country's warring sides agreed to resume ceasefire talks. Libya has been without central government authority since 2011, with towns and cities controlled by factions fighting for rival governments set up in the east and the west since 2014 in a sometimes chaotic war that has drawn in outside powers and a flood of foreign arms and mercenaries. Haftar, the most powerful figure in the east, launched an offensive to capture the capital Tripoli in April 2019 but it stalled within months. This week’s developments in the complex conflict follow a month of gains for the GNA. Backed by Turkish air defences and drone strikes, Serraj neutralised LNA air power and advanced rapidly against Haftar’s forces, which have been backed by Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. The GNA have successfully retaken several towns in the northwest and a strategic airbase near the Tunisian border, driving the LNA from much of its foothold. NEW OFFENSIVE ON LIBYA’S GHARYAN With the LNA driven from almost all its ground in the capital, the next big battle likely to focus on the areas to the south and southeast of Tripoli around Gharyan, held by the GNA, and Tarhouna, a town that lies around 90km (55 miles) south-east of the capital held by the LNA and controlled by a militia known as al-Qaniyat, mainly made up of men previously loyal to the Gaddafi regime.  This week, the LNA renewed its offensive in mountain regions, conducting extensive aerial attacks on positions held by forces aligned to the GNA and advancing towards the strategic town of Gharyan which it lost almost a year ago. Haftar’s forces retook the town of Asabiah, lying around 15km southwest of Gharyan, on Monday. A source close the general said that he had given orders for regaining control of Gharyan before October this year. Haftar’s first success in recent weeks as the LNA begins to reformulate its strategy after pulling troops from the Tripoli frontlines broadly reflects the seesawing nature of the war. CEASEFIRE TALKS RESUME There was a burst of diplomacy on Wednesday as leaders from both sides travelled abroad for meetings hosted by the foreign powers embroiled in the conflict. GNA Prime Minister al-Serraj travelled to Ankara late on Wednesday, Turkish broadcasters reported. Meanwhile, Haftar travelled to Egypt to meet defence officials, a source close to him said.  Meanwhile, the United Nations said its top envoy in Libya held talks on Wednesday with a delegation from Haftar’s forces to follow up on the agreement by the country’s warring parties to resume cease-fire negotiations, calling it “a positive step.” All previous attempts at a cease-fire, most recently in January on the occasion of a conference in Berlin, have failed. In February, when talks were suspended, the rival camps had agreed to negotiate a “permanent cease-fire” under a joint GNA/pro-Haftar military commission. The U.N. Mission in Libya expressed they hope the talks would “mark the beginning of calm on the ground” and allow the country’s war-scarred health system to cope with the coronavirus outbreak in the country. The virus has infected at least 168 people in Libya, but testing is extremely limited. The impact of a large outbreak would likely be severe given the continued fighting and the state of the country’s health system. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said acting special representative Stephanie Williams would hold a similar video meeting with a delegation from the U.N.-supported government in the capital of Tripoli “in the coming days.” Dujarric called the meetings with the two delegations “first steps ... in the right direction.” “We will continue pushing and working with the parties ... to alleviate some of the suffering of the Libyan people,” he said. “To say that the situation on the ground, the violence and the political situation, is complex would be the understatement of the year.” Dujarric said negotiations on a cease-fire agreement and technical arrangement will continue on the basis of a draft presented to both sides by Libya’s U.N. Mission on February 23. Egypt and the UAE have said they welcome the announcement that warring factions in Libya have agreed to resume ceasefire negotiations. The joint statement by the Egyptian and Emirati foreign ministries "called for parties to fully commit to the political process under the auspices of the UN and the Berlin conference". France’s foreign ministry welcomed the agreement and said it “intends to do everything in its power to bring about an immediate resumption of discussions and the swift signing of a ceasefire agreement.” “The worst scenario would be a Turkey-Russia deal imposing their conditions,” said a top French official, speaking anonymously under the French presidency’s customary practices. “What we seek is not the victory of one side over another, but political negotiations and resource sharing.”  GROWING CONCERNS OVER RUSSIAN INVOLVEMENT U.S. and Libyan officials have accused Russia of deploying fighters from the Wagner Group in key battleground areas in Libya. Last month, the U.S. military accused Russia of 14 MiG 29 and Su-24 fighter jets to the LNA’s Jufra air-base in central Libya, saying the move was part of Moscow’s longer-term goal to establish a foothold in the region that could threaten NATO allies. According to a leaked UN report, the Russian private military contractor deployed about 1,200 mercenaries to Libya to strengthen Haftar's forces. They have been identified by their equipment, typically reserved for Russia's armed forces. UN monitors said more than two dozen flights between Russia and eastern Libya from August 2018 to August 2019 by civilian aircraft "strongly linked to or owned by" Wagner Group - or related companies. Across the Wagner Group, personnel are predominantly Russian, but also include citizens of Belarus, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine, the UN report said. Moscow and the LNA denied this, although the LNA says it has refurbished some old Libyan planes and is preparing a new air campaign. On Wednesday, an LNA military source said warplanes had struck near Gharyan, the first acknowledged use of warplanes by eastern forces since Washington said Russia had supplied the new MiG 29 and Su-24 jets.  The United Nations has warned that the flood of weapons and fighters into Libya in defiance of an arms embargo threatens a major new escalation in the fighting.