Arab League reaffirms rejection of foreign interference, calls for Libya solution

Arab League’s permanent representatives meet at its headquarters in the Egyptian capital Cairo on Dec. 31, 2019, to discuss developments in Libya and the possibility of an escalation there. (AFP)

• Turkey has said it will seek parliamentary support for sending troops to Libya

CAIRO: The Arab League Council reaffirmed commitment to Libyan unity, sovereignty, and safety yesterday, and also reaffirmed supporting the full implementation of the Sokhairat agreement, signed in December 2015, for a political solution to settle the crisis in the North African country. 
The council held an emergency meeting in an extraordinary closed session attended by permanent representatives, after the Arab League General Secretariat received a memorandum from Egypt requesting an extraordinary meeting of the council to discuss the latest developments in Libya. In its memorandum, Egypt called for a discussion on its neighbor, as well as the prospects of escalation. 
The meeting was headed by Iraq, represented by Ambassador Ahmed Nayef Al-Dulaimi, its permanent representative to the Arab League and chair of the current session. The meeting aimed to find a unified Arab stance towards illegitimate foreign interventions in Libyan affairs.
In its resolution, the council expressed grave concern regarding the military escalation in the country which, it said, threatened the security and stability of both Libya and its neighbors in North Africa and the Mediterranean. It underscored the need to halt military conflict, and said that a political solution was the only way to restore stability. 
The league underlined the dangerous consequences of a unilateral decision by any Libyan party that would allow foreign military interventions, thus contributing to the escalation and prolonging the period of conflict in the region.
The resolution also stressed the need to prevent regional interventions that, among other things, would contribute in facilitating the movement of foreign combatants from other conflicts into Libya. It underlined its rejection of violating international resolutions banning the supply of weapons in a way that would threaten the security of Libya's neighboring countries as well as the security of the Mediterranean.
The council called on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to submit a report on the issue to the UN Security Council to accelerate the process of handling developments, since any potential foreign military intervention in Libya would entail a threat to international peace and security, and asked Kuwait, the only Arab member of the Security Council, to discuss the issue with its partners.
It also called on Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit to conduct high-level contacts with the all international parties concerned with the Libyan crisis with the aim of deriving positive coordinated stances to resolve the crisis. Such efforts stemmed from the Berlin Process to reach an all-Libyan solution to the crisis, and to submit periodical follow-up reports to the Arab League Council on the implementation of the resolution.
Al-Dulaimi called on concerned parties to resort to constructive national dialogue. The Iraqi representative also called for Arab support for efforts to achieve peace and stability, and for the league’s efforts. 
The chair delivered a speech in which he underlined his country’s firm stance rejecting and condemning foreign interventions in the affairs of any Arab country. He said that this, the second extraordinary meeting of the council within two weeks, reflected the magnitude of the challenges facing Arab nations and peoples, and added that the stability of each was the cornerstone of stability of the whole Arab world.