The United Arab Emirates (UAE), which supported Libya’s East-based Putist General Khalifa Haftar during its offensive against the legitimate administration, has promised support for the new unity government in Tripoli formed after UN-sponsored peace talks.
Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan received Libya’s caretaker Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah in the United Arab Emirates’ capital late on Wednesday.
He “renewed his support for the new executive in Libya and their quest for peace and stability,” the official WAM news agency reported on Thursday.
The United Arab Emirates said in January that it was ready to work closely with US President Joe Biden’s administration for a peaceful solution to the Libyan conflict.
The January statement followed a virtual Security Council meeting on Libya, during which the United States called on “all external parties, including Russia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, to respect Libya’s sovereignty and to immediately cease all military intervention in Libya.”
Previously, the United Arab Emirates, with Egypt and Russia, one of the main supporters of Haftar, was the eastern base of his aborted attempt to defeat the UN-backed National Accord Government (GNA) in Tripoli, which was mainly supported by Turkey and Qatar.
In March, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a declaration demanding that all foreign troops and mercenaries withdraw from Libya.
The world body estimates that there were 20,000 in the country in December.
Libya has been ravaged by bloodshed since the longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown and killed in a NATO-backed revolt in 2011. A series of armed groups emerged to fill the vacuum, and many collapsed around Haftar or GNA. The two camps, both supported by foreign powers, fought for more than a year before Haftar was forced to withdraw.
In October, they signed a ceasefire and launched a UN-led process in which Dbeibah’s transitional government was installed in February.
.
