Egypt’s Sisi announces Cairo Declaration ending Libya dispute

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi together with Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA) and Libya’s Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh announced a new joint political initiative aimed at ending Libya dispute..

At a press conference in Cairo, El-Sisi announced the initiative dubbed the Cairo Declaration mandating a Libyan-Libyan resolution following a tripartite summit with Haftar and Saleh.

The declaration stipulates a ceasefire starting 06:00 am (4:00 GMT) 8 June, while respecting all efforts, international initiatives and Security Council resolutions on the unity and territorial integrity of Libyan lands.

It obliges all foreign parties to “remove all foreign mercenaries nationwide and the dismantling of militias and a handover of weapons to allow the LNA to cooperate with other security apparatuses to undertake their military duty.”

It also includes resolving the crisis through ensuring a fair representation for Libya’s three provinces through a presidential council elected by the nation under a UN supervision for governance in the country for the first time in the country’s history.

It would also see a starting point to unify Libyan institutions to allow it to carry duties and ensure a fair and transparent distribution of Libyan resources on all citizens, precluding the possession of any extremist groups or militias on the state’s capabilities.

The declaration also sees an adoption of a constitutional declaration that governs the upcoming period politically.

The head of the Tripoli parliament, aligned with the Government of National Accord (GNA) based in the capital, dismissed the offer as that of a defeated force.

Haftar’s reversal extends the GNA’s control across most of northwest Libya while Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), based in Benghazi, and its allies control the east and much of the south, as well as most of Libya’s oilfields.

For more than five years, rival parliaments and governments in the east and the west have engaged in a stop-start conflict.