What Mandate? Mediating During Warfighting in the Libyan Revolution (2011)

ABSTRACT

The United Nation’s mediation mandate evolved during the Libyan revolution and was hampered by inconsistent support for the mediation, by other mediation initiatives, including that of the African Union, and by a proliferation of envoys and transition plans. When a battlefield stalemate obliged the international community to agree on a political mandate for mediation led by United Nations Special Envoy Abdelelah al-Khatib, the challenge was to persuade Gaddafi to accept a transition in which he would have no role. Gaddafi would not consent to this, and the rebels had little interest in a mediated transition that included him.

KEYWORDS:

• Arab Spring
• Libya
• mediation
• revolution

Notes

^1. This article draws on Peter Bartu, “Libya’s Political Transition: The Challenges of Mediation,” International Peace Institute, December 2014. The author was deployed to Benghazi as a member of the 2011 UN Standby Mediation Team for a number of months together with staff from the UN Department of Political Affairs (DPA). He was part of the first UN team to arrive in Tripoli after it fell.

^2. For a conceptual overview of the mediation mandate, including the mandate from the parties, see Laurie Nathan, “Marching Orders: Exploring the Mediation Mandate,” African Security, 2017, 155-175.

^3. Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi’s speech of February 20, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ziSrQ3cpzk.

^4. Muammar Gaddafi’s speech, February 22, 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69wBG6ULNzQ.

^5. Interview with Ibrahim Dabashi, Libyan Permanent Mission to the UN, New York, April 21, 2014.

^6. UN Security Council Resolution 1970 (2011), adopted February 26, 2011.

^7. Alan Cowell and Steven Erlanger, “France Becomes First Country to Recognize Libyan Rebels,” New York Times, March 10, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/world/europe/11france.html.

^8. “OIC Chief Backs No-Fly Zone Over Libya,” Agence France-Presse, March 8, 2011, http://www.emirates247.com/news/world/oic-chief-backs-no-fly-zone-over-libya-2011-03-08-1.365480.

^9. “Arab League Backs Libya No-Fly Zone,” BBC News, March 12, 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12723554.

^10. Interview with Abdelelah al-Khatib, Amman, April 19, 2014.

^11. Ibid.

^12. Al-Khatib worked directly for the UN Secretary-General’s office and discussed his strategies with the UN Secretary-General’s senior staff, including the UN DPA chief Lynn Pascoe. In most of his meetings al-Khatib was accompanied by DPA staff, who also funneled support from the UN’s Mediation Support Unit.

^13. “Libya: Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa ‘defects to UK,’” BBC News, March 31, 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12915959.

^14. Interview with al-Khatib.

^15. Ibid.

^16. UN Security Council Resolution 1973 (2011), adopted March 17, 2011.

^17. Ibid.

^18. Alex de Waal, “African Roles in the Libyan Conflict of 2011,” International Affairs 89, no. 2 (2013): 368.

^19. UN Security Council Resolution 1973.

^20. African Union, Communiqué of the Consultative Meeting on the Situation in Libya, Addis Ababa, March 25, 2011.

^21. “Libya: Gaddafi Must Step Down, Says ‘Contact Group,’” BBC News, April 14, 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13058694; Statement from the conference chair, Foreign Secretary William Hague, following the London Conference on Libya, March 29, 2011, http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_2011_03/20110927_110329_-London-Conference-Libya.pdf.

^22. Interview with al-Khatib.

^23. Because of the no-fly zone, all of al-Khatib’s flights into Libya and his itinerary there had to be cleared in advance with NATO via UN headquarters.

^24. De Waal, “African Roles,” 375–378.

^25. Ibid., 372.

^26. Peter Graff, “Libya’s Gaddafi: I Will Not Leave My Country,” Reuters, May 31, 2011, http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE74U01T20110531.

^27. “Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz Says Gaddafi has Lost Control of Libya and Needs to Step Down,” Newstime Africa, June 7, 2011, http://www.newstimeafrica.com/archives/20507.

^28. Interview with Dabashi.

^29. Ibid.

^30. Ibid.

^31. “Turkey Working on Roadmap for Peace in Libya, Says PM Erdogan,” The Guardian, April 7, 2011, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/07/turkey-roadmap-for-peace-libya.

^32. “Final Report of the Panel of Experts Established Pursuant to Resolution 1973 (2011),” UN doc. S/2015/128.

^33. Christopher Chivvis, Toppling Gaddafi: Libya and the Limits of Liberal Intervention (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2014).

^34. Jon Hanssen-Bauer and peace researcher Henrik Thune led the negotiations on behalf of Støre. See “Norway Negotiated while Bombing Libya,” NewsInEnglish, October 9, 2014, Berglund, http://www.newsinenglish.no/?s=Norway+negotiated+while+bombing+Libya.

^35. See Chivvis, Toppling Gaddafi, 148–154, for an overview of some of the mediation efforts. Despite supporting the mediation track, Russia also played heavily on AU resentment over Libya and at BRICS meetings would try to steer them away from supporting the new democratic movements in the Middle East. Russia had no investment in Libya and was not negative per se. But Putin and his colleagues were veterans of the Cold War, who felt that Russia had been pushed around over the 1999 Kosovo intervention and they were opposed to NATO involvement in Syria.

^36. Comments attributed to U.S. National Security Council staffer Derek Chollet in Jo Becker and Scott Shane, “The Libya Gamble, Part One: Hillary Clinton, ‘Smart Power’ and a Dictator’s Fall,” New York Times, February 27, 2016.

^37. “Chair’s Statement,” fourth meeting of the Libya Contact Group, Istanbul, July 15, 2011, http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_2011_07/20110926_110715-Libya-Contact-Group-Istanbul.pdf.

^38. Ibid.

^39. “US Sends ‘Time to Go’ Message to Gaddafi,” Aljazeera, July 19, 2011.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/07/2011718233615749270.html, accessed February 20, 2017.

^40. Ian Black, “Turkey Asks Libya Summit to Back Peace Negotiations,” The Guardian, July 14, 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/14/libya-turkey-peace-negotiations-roadmap, accessed May 16, 2014.

^41. Maria Golovnina, “Rebel Chief: Gaddafi Welcome to Retire in Libya,” Reuters, July 3, 2011, http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE76204J20110703, accessed February 20, 2017.