Two hours. The conversation in Rome between Giorgia Meloni and Khalifa Haftar lasted a long time. The Libyan general, a strongman from Cyrenaica, arrived in the capital on Wednesday and met with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in the evening. Yesterday, however, he was received at Palazzo Chigi by the Prime Minister. An inevitable interlocutor in Libya, especially with regard to migratory flows. Incidentally, the conversation focused precisely on this point, as well as on the elections in the country (the UN works for them to take place by 2023) and on the situation in Sudan, closely linked to immigration from Libya and a source of further instability in the area.
In fact, what is happening worries the Italian government and the Premier wanted to express it to Haftar in the hope, perhaps, of an intervention to at least reach a lasting ceasefire to avoid, in part, the exodus to Libya and consequently to Italy’s coasts.
In the North African country, according to Il Tempo sources, the Sudanese have already arrived in large numbers, even in Haftar’s zone of influence. It is also from there that, in recent months, more than half of the migrants who arrived in Italy via the Mediterranean departed. And the Wagner group of Russian mercenaries is also present in Cyrenaica, suspected of having played a key role in the destabilization of Sudan and in General Dagalo’s attempted coup d’état. Haftar’s role in the Sudanese crisis, however, remains unclear. What comes up at the moment is his son Siddiq’s trip in early April, when he supposedly met General Dagalo in Khartoum.
Talking to Haftar, therefore, was more of a priority than ever. During the prime minister’s visit to Libya, on January 28, Meloni did not go to Cyrenaica, officially due to the general’s health problems. From then on, the reports remained suspended. Until yesterday’s meeting, which reactivated an inevitable path: sit down at the table with Haftar, weigh him up, understand how far he can and wants to go, what pacts he is willing to accept to contribute to the stabilization of Libya, what he wants in return . According to Libyan sources, the general demands legitimacy from the international community to participate in the vote. Without this green signal, in fact, it would not be possible to start any trades. And of that, explain diplomatic sources, everyone would be aware. Libya is currently divided in two: on the one hand Tripoli under the influence of Prime Minister Dabaiba, on the other Cyrenaica where Haftar commands who, among other things, usually talks directly with the powers that play in the area, without intermediaries.
The prospect of elections in 2023, floated in February by UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily, has been coldly received by both Tripoli and Benghazi, and for the moment there is still an impasse. Haftar’s visit to Rome, however, brought some tensions with his cousins across the Alps. The meeting between Giorgia Meloni and the general would have offended the sensibility of France which, at the moment, seems to have another conference on Libya underway to be held in Paris. Haftar’s visit to Rome, therefore, in the French reading, would have cut the path for this operation. Hence the words of the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin, who arrived on the day of the meeting between the Italian Prime Minister and the general. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni “is not capable of solving the migration problems” of Italy, she said, a country that is experiencing a “very serious migration crisis”.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
