ASSESSMENTS

France and Italy Each Go Their Own Way on Libya

Sep 5, 2018 | 09:30 GMT

Members of the Libyan Special Forces, who are loyal to Khalifa Hifter, ride in a pickup truck past a billboard bearing the strongman's image in Benghazi during September 2017.

Members of the Libyan Special Forces, who are loyal to Khalifa Hifter, ride in a pickup truck past a billboard bearing the strongman's image in Benghazi on Sept. 19, 2017. France and Italy have differing aims and objectives in Libya.

(ABDULLAH DOMA/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • The competition among European powers in Libya will continue to undermine attempts to solve the country's underlying political crises.
  • The rise of far-right parties in Italy will force Rome to deepen its involvement in Libya as it seeks to reduce migrant flows and protect its economic interests — both of which center on western Libya.
  • French President Emmanuel Macron's quest to reassert Paris' international role and the consequences of Libyan insecurity to France's former African colonies will oblige Paris to continue backing a strong military force in Libya through a figure such as Khalifa Hifter.
  • Because France and Italy both view Libya as a natural sphere of influence, their conflicting goals will compound the competition over the country.

There's much that France and Italy agree on when it comes to Libya: Both want to stabilize the country so that it doesn't become a haven for terrorism or a staging ground for African migrants, and both wish to prevent its two squabbling governments from fighting one another. But try as they might, the two countries just can't get onto the same page. Paris and Rome back opposite sides of the conflict, and they have two very different views on what should happen next. After bringing together Libya's main players for a conference in May, Paris convinced the various factions to hold elections on Dec. 10. Rome, in contrast, has no wish for any elections this year and is instead planning to hold its own conference on the future of Libya in October. The divergence stems in part from the countries' different imperatives and areas of interest in the North...

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