Qatar pledges support for Libyan unity amid election pact challenges

Qatar’s minister of state has pledged his country’s commitment to ending longstanding political division in Libya during a visit to Benghazi.

Minister of State Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi met with Khalifa Haftar, commander of the self-styled Libyan National Army, which is aligned with the unrecognised eastern-based government, on Thursday.

Libya has been split since 2014 between the Tripoli-based government of National Unity, led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, and the Haftar-backed eastern administration of Osama Hammad.

The visit, during which al-Khulaifi expressed Qatar’s support for Libyan unity and sovereignty, comes as the country faces the challenge of implementing a recently agreed election pact.

The two officials discussed regional developments and “topics of common interest,” the Qatari Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Al-Khulaifi affirmed Qatar’s support for “a political process that reflects Libyans’ aspirations while aiming at preserving the country’s sovereignty,” according to the statement.

He also stressed the need for continued dialogue and reconciliation to build consensus and pave the way for stability.

Qatar will keep engaging with Libyan parties and leaders to back United Nations efforts towards a political agreement, al-Khulaifi added.

He earlier told Al Jazeera he had discussed ways to support the political process and national dialogue with leaders in Tripoli.

Election pact

Libyan negotiators agreed last week to an initial election pact aimed at ending years of political division within the country.

A document obtained by Al Jazeera Arabic shows the “4+4” committee’s deal, initiated in Tunisia, rewrites the laws governing presidential and legislative elections and sets a 24-month deadline to hold them.

The committee drew four members each from the eastern House of Representatives and the Tripoli-linked High Council of the State.

The pact, however, is on shaky ground, with people from both sides saying they were left out of talks or had not seen the final text.

The United Nations labelled the deal an important step and says the full agreement will be published once it is formally signed.

The UN and other mediators have spent years trying to resolve the split by arranging elections. However, the implementation of the pact is viewed as challenging, due to divided state institutions, legal voids, and lingering political mistrust.

Libyan legal expert Al-Mahdi Kashbour told Al Jazeera that there appears to be a gap between the powers of the parties that signed the agreement and the institutions with the authority to implement it.

Libyan political analyst Elias al-Barouni stressed that the pact does not make any concrete plans for the country’s elections. Even if legal hurdles are cleared, the problem then shifts to who governs Libya in the interim, he added.