World powers meet on Libya crisis to push elections

The meeting, which includes the leaders of Egypt, France, Libya, and Germany, as well as the U.S. vice president, is aimed at cementing world backing for the planned vote on Dec. 24 and efforts to remove foreign forces, according to Reuters.

The elections are envisaged as a key moment in a U.N.-backed peace process to end a decade of violent chaos that has drawn in regional powers and undermined Mediterranean stability since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising against Muammar Gaddafi.

The votes for a new president and parliament are still in doubt with six weeks to go amid disputes between rival eastern and western Libyan factions and political bodies over the rules underpinning the electoral schedule and who can run.

The wrangling threatens to unravel the wider peace process, which also includes efforts to unify long-divided state institutions and to pull out foreign mercenaries who remain entrenched along frontlines despite a ceasefire.

Draft conference conclusions affirmed “that individuals or entities, inside or outside of Libya, who might attempt to obstruct, undermine, manipulate or falsify the electoral process and the political transition” could face sanctions.

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres in a video message to the conference warned that “any party that deliberately undermines or sabotages peace must be held accountable.”

The U.N. Security Council has previously agreed sanctions against Libyan political figures for their role in the conflict. However Russia has only sent lower-level representatives to Paris, raising questions over its backing of any positions agreed there.

The document seen by Reuters takes note of the Libyan electoral commission setting Dec. 24 as the starting date for an electoral process that would extend to a later second-round presidential vote on the same day as a parliamentary election.