British special envoy for Libya warns of dangerous situation if UN talks fail

If U.N. attempts to get peace talks going between rival Libyan factions fail, there is a risk of full-scale civil war which would pose a serious threat to Libya’s neighbours and to Europe, the British special envoy for Libya said.
The U.N.-sponsored talks, which began in Geneva on Wednesday, aim to reach agreement to form a unity government. But they have begun without one important faction – the self-declared government which took over the capital Tripoli last year, forcing the elected government and parliament to relocate.
Bernadino Leon, the U.N. envoy leading the talks, still hopes to bring the Tripoli government into the negotiations.
“Will he succeed? I don’t know,” Jonathan Powell, Britain’s envoy for Libya and a seasoned mediator, said on Wednesday.
“I sincerely hope he does, because the alternative of Libya turning into a Somalia by the Mediterranean would be completely disastrous,” he said.
Libya would become a threat to southern Europe, and to Egypt and Tunisia. “Tunisia of course is one country everyone will want to protect as the success story of the Arab Spring,” Powell said.
Libya is at a stage where it could go into a full-scale civil war, or start coming out of the conflict. “It’s not clear yet which of those is going to happen,” he said.
Governments are unlikely to intervene by sending in troops, in the way that Iranian forces are on the ground in Syria, he said.
“But that won’t stop people supporting their side in such a conflict, with weapons, advice, money, indeed egging them on. I hope that won’t happen but that is the danger,” he said.