Arab media: France seeks to restore its influence in Libya.
According to Eram News, diplomatic moves led by France to hold a meeting of the parties to the Libyan crisis have raised widespread questions about Paris’ ability to regain its role and influence in the Libyan case, given the ongoing political deadlock and the complexity of the country’s domestic scene.
In this regard, the new French ambassador to Libya, “Trevallet”, has held intensive meetings with various parties in the country, including “Mohammed al-Munafi, the head of the Presidential Council, and his goal is to break the deadlock of the crisis and push the political process towards a more effective process.
Libyan diplomat “Othman al-Badri” said about these moves: “Libya’s relations with different European countries are different, for example, relations with Italy are of particular importance because Rome is making efforts to establish stability within the country due to its geographical proximity and economic relations, especially its reliance on Libyan gas.”
He added: “Relations with France are relatively different because Paris focuses on influencing its former colonies such as Niger, Mali and Chad, and its relations with Libya are balanced at the political and economic level and it has no military ambitions within the country.”
The diplomat noted: “The decline in French influence in Africa has led Paris to try to play the role of mediator between the parties to the crisis in Libya. France recently tried to hold a meeting between the president of parliament and the president of the Supreme Council of State, but these efforts were not successful due to the difference in approaches between the two sides.”
On the other hand, Hossam Al-Fanish, a Libyan political analyst, says that France is seeking to restore and restore its influence, which has declined over the past years, through intensive political movements, but given the complexity of the Libyan situation and the multitude of influential domestic and international parties, Libya’s opportunities to play a role will be limited.
He added: “Paris now relies on diplomatic, political, and economic tools and also has a limited and indirect security option, but it cannot directly intervene militarily because this option has already been proven to be ineffective and costly.”
Al-Fanish noted: “France’s recent movements in eastern and western Libya and meetings with Aqila Saleh, the speaker of the Libyan parliament, and Mohammed Takaleh, the head of the country’s Supreme Council, reflect France’s dual strategy, which is based on managing the balance and equilibrium between the decision-making parties inside Libya, and Paris is trying to reduce Russia’s influence in the country by strengthening its presence in Libya.”
The political analyst emphasized: “Paris is counting on the energy, oil and gas sectors, as well as infrastructure and reconstruction projects, as tools to restore its long-term influence that will guarantee its place in any future political agreement.”
He believes that: France’s power to enter the Libyan case practically is still limited, and success in this field requires moving beyond symbolic meetings and moving towards a broader strategy that deals with multiple decision-making centers and breaks the existing political deadlock.
Al-Fanish finally emphasized: Libya is no longer an arena that can be controlled unilaterally, and any possible role of France is subject to Paris’ willingness to cooperate within the framework of strategic partnerships and accepting the reality of multiple actors. The country must also have the ability to accurately and flexibly analyze the situation in Libya and not seek to restore its past influence.
This is while Ammar Benjameh, Algeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, previously emphasized that the organization must apply the necessary pressure for the withdrawal of all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libyan territory.