By Agnese Boffano

 

WASHINGTON, 23 August. - (ANA) - Washington has stepped up engagement with Libya’s western-based government as well as the rival eastern forces led by Khalifa Haftar, seeking an arrangement that would bring together rival executives, military structures and economic institutions after years of political paralysis.

 

But the reported deal has drawn concern over its lack of transparency and over the prospect of Saddam Haftar, the son of the eastern commander and a powerful military figure in his own right, taking the country’s top post.

 

In a new briefing published this week, the International Crisis Group said the US initiative could help consolidate Libya’s fractured institutions but warned that its political component risked provoking destabilising opposition if it was not opened to wider domestic participation.

 

Claudia Gazzini, the Crisis Group’s senior Libya analyst and author of the report, told The New Arab that Washington should make the terms of any deal available for public scrutiny.

 

"We consider that a good effort, but what we’re saying is that the US needs to see this through," she said. "So, ensure that the terms of that deal are disclosed, for public scrutiny."

 

She said particular clarification was needed over provisions relating to the development budget, which remain unclear.

 

Gazzini added that public scrutiny of a proposed "Unified Agreement" could also help address corruption and illicit financial flows.

 

"Allow for scrutiny of the so-called Unified Agreement because on the basis of that we can also determine how and whether to stop all the other parallel flows of illicit financing," she said.

 

The US has publicly pointed to progress in its Libya engagement. At the UN Security Council this week, Washington said rival military leaders had agreed to establish a joint operations centre in Sirte, an air-training centre in Misrata and an integrated command structure.

 

US senior adviser Massad Boulos has also welcomed a UN-brokered agreement reached in Tunis on electoral legislation and the High National Elections Commission, while backing efforts to form a unified executive.

 

Yet the precise terms of the broader political arrangement have not been made public. Reporting around the initiative has suggested it could retain Abdulhamid Dbeibah as prime minister while handing Saddam Haftar the leadership of the Presidential Council, an arrangement intended to reflect the balance of power between Libya’s west and east.

 

Gazzini said the idea behind the proposal was a "realistic approach" in which the principal actors from both sides of the country hold positions of authority. But she warned that the prospective role of Saddam Haftar was causing concern and alarm.

 

"The risk is that, given the track record of Saddam Haftar – who is at the head of military grouping, who has been accused in the past of silencing opposition and possibly, also, involvement in the disappearance of activists – they fear that Saddam Haftar, if he were to be given the country’s top position, he could soon after sideline the Prime Minister," she said.

 

"The legal framework would allow for the President to call, for example, a state of emergency and rule with an iron fist."

 

The other immediate danger, she said, is that negotiations are being carried out by a narrow circle, without the political and local actors needed to make an eventual agreement stick.

 

"This process is happening behind closed doors and only involves those few affiliates to Dbeibeh on one side and Haftar on the other, and has not involved any institutions, any municipalities or civil society organisations," Gazzini said.

 

"When I say that there needs to be domestic buy-in, it means to ensure that also influential political groups or individuals with ties to powerful militias are also signing off on this deal because otherwise the risk is that they can mobilise and not accept this new set up."

 

 

 

 

That risk is playing out against a worsening security backdrop.

 

In recent days, unclaimed drone attacks have hit fuel storage, refinery and electricity infrastructure in Zawiya, a strategic western city whose refinery and associated fuel networks are contested by rival armed groups. The attacks damaged a substation and contributed to major power cuts across western Libya, while no group has claimed responsibility.

 

On Saturday, Khalifa Haftar’s General Command said its forces had clashed with armed groups near the al-Sarah military base in Libya’s far south-east, claiming arrests and the seizure of armed vehicles.

 

The Southern Liberation Operations Room, which is opposed to Haftar, denied the account, calling it unfounded and saying its forces remained deployed in their positions.

 

Gazzini said influential groups in western Libya had signalled that they would not accept the proposed arrangement, raising the possibility of armed resistance in Tripoli and other key western cities.

 

"Influential personalities in western Libya who oppose the deal have only stated that significant groups in the west will not accept the deal and will mobilise," she said. "The risk is of mobilisation, of some armed groups in Tripoli, possibly from Misrata and maybe Zawiya."

 

"Of course, there is the possibility that the Haftar side can by that time buy loyalty," Gazzini added. "But it’s very much fluid and in the making." - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/23 August 2026 - - -