Africa Intelligence reports that Muscat’s brokerage of Libyan rival leaders meeting “caused great displeasure in Washington”
This is from Africa Intelligence/Maghreb Confidential.
At their meeting in the Maltese prime minister’s office, Libya’s rival leaders announced that they would not sign a UN-brokered agreement.
Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat has been careful not to promote a second meeting between the presidents of the rival Tripoli and Tobruk assemblies, Nuri Abu Sahmain and Aguila Salah Issa.
The two presidents, who are trying to negotiate the formation of an alternative national unity government to that of the United Nations, came together in Valletta thanks to Muscat’s mediation. This first meeting was a serious distraction from the UN agreement, which was signed in Skhirat in Morocco two days later.
Muscat’s initiative caused great displeasure in Washington, where, according to our sources, the authorities made a point of making their views known to him. As a result, Abu Sahmain and Salah Issa were due to meet in Muscat, Oman, as we went to press on December 23.
Malta did not sign the declaration of support for UN special envoy Martin Kobler. Nor did it congratulate the signing of the Skhirat agreement on December 17.
Screenshot image from Times of Malta