UN-backed Libyan leader open to talks with eastern rival

The prime minister of Libya’s UN-backed government said yesterday that he was open to talks with an eastern Libyan commander despite his self-styled army’s offensive on oil facilities.

The advance is the latest power struggle over the OPEC member’s energy assets after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and ensuing chaos left the North African country splintered into rival armed factions.

The commander, General Khalifa Haftar, opposes the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord and has resisted its attempts to integrate his Libyan National Army into unified armed forces. Haftar’s seizure of ports risks a response from brigades allied with the government in western Libya and a deepening of regional divisions.

“I am willing to talk with anyone for the sake of solving the problems of Libyans,” Prime Minister Fayez Seraj told reporters on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York. “There are many obstacles of course and one of them is trying to have a unified army under [the control] of the political body.”

Armed conflict and disputes have left Libya’s oil installations under the control of different factions and cut output to a fraction of the 1.6 million barrels per day produced before an uprising toppled Gaddafi.

“The oil question should unite and not divide,” Martin Kobler, the UN Special Envoy to Libya, told reporters. “This is a longish process. Armed groups don’t disappear because of a piece of paper. There have to be a strong institutions.”