Italy has been left scrambling to salvage the Palermo conference after Libyan National Army (LNA) commander Khalifa Haftar announced that he would not be attending the meeting, which kicks off on Monday.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte dispatched on Saturday night a delegation in order to persuade Haftar to attend the two-day talks.
Haftar told the delegation, which was believed to have been headed by intelligence chief Alberto Manenti, that he refuses to attend the Palermo talks, informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Media reports on Sunday speculated that Conte had headed to Benghazi to meet Haftar. Rome denied these claims. LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari refused to comment on them.
Haftar’s bureau did not officially announce a stance from the Palermo conference, but sources close to him told Asharq Al-Awsat that he would not attend.
Conte had met with Haftar in Rome last week, declaring that the LNA chief would be at the talks.
Head of the higher council of state Khaled al-Mishri and Government of National Accord (GNA) chief Fayez al-Sarraj are expected to participate in the Palermo meeting. Their rival, parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh is also expected at the talks. Rome has also invited a number of tribal officials and representatives of France, the United States and Arab countries.
In an attempt to avoid the failure of the conference, Conte said that the meeting “represents a main step forward towards achieving stability in Libya and the entire Mediterranean.”
His remarks were made soon after United Nations envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame officially announced last week that presidential and parliamentary elections would not be possible in Libya before the end of the year. He predicted that the polls could be held in spring 2019.
Head of the defense and national security parliamentary committee Talal al-Mayhoub told Asharq Al-Awsat that he believes Haftar’s absence from the Palermo conference could be blamed on the participation of his rival, the Muslim Brotherhood party.
He said that Italian organizers had went out of their way to invite several Brotherhood officials, who are known for their animosity to the LNA and their desire to prolong the Libyan crisis.
The Italian government had previously announced that the Palermo meeting is aimed at providing tangible steps to establish stability in the North African country through reaching a comprehensive agreement between main political players.
The last time the Libyan rivals, including Haftar and Sarraj, had met was during a May conference in Paris where they agreed to hold elections before the end of the year.
