Libya's Promising Transition Stalls

The surge of hope inspired by the remarkable breakthrough in Libya's year-old peace process is starting to fade as negotiations to enable viable elections on 24 December bog down. Since the government of national unity's swearing-in on 15 March, progress has stalled and a stalemate has set in, says Silvia Colombo, Libyan expert at the Istituto Affari Internazionali.

Negotiations have deadlocked mostly over the nature and sequencing - and possibly the delay - of the 24 December elections, and the crucial question of who should be the military's commander in chief. The 1 July deadline has passed without the necessary constitutional amendments and electoral law to be adopted by Parliament that would allow for polls to be organised.

Another stumbling block is the persistence of foreign forces in the country, despite the November agreement stipulating that they should all have left by now. These include Syrian mercenaries on both sides of the conflict. Turkish military elements that backed the previous Tripoli government are also still present, as is the Russian private military company Wagner - a proxy for Moscow - that backed Haftar and the Tobruk government.