After months of failed efforts by the UN, Libya’s two rival parliaments have agreed to a power-sharing deal. The deal is separate from the UN version, though the details of what is different between the two are not wholly clear.
The deal was announced by a handful of MPs from the Tobruk parliament, and was quickly condemned by MPs from both parliaments, suggesting that this “agreement” is no more stable than the tentative agreements on previous deals.
After fighting over the capital city of Tripoli, one parliament ended up in power in that city, while the rival parliament, which is backed by the UN, has been operating out of tiny Tobruk, where it holds very little territory.
The UN has designs on a unity parliament emerging that can take back the country, though at this point even combined the two factions would be only one of several groups vying for power over Libya.
So basically what we’re seeing here is the complete explosion of a previously sovereign country. What about the thousand pieces that are going to emerge from that explosion? are they going to be eventually digested by neighboring Egypt, Tunisia and Mali? or will we be witnessing the birth of yet another caliphate?