International actors

British Ambassador to the UN, Sir Mark Lyall Grant stated during an interview with the Al-Arabiya television channel that Libya would only be supplied with weapons to fight IS if it agreed to a national unity government first.

There was no overt Western response to jihadi activity this week.

Italian Defence Minister, Roberta Pinotto, stated in an interview published on 15 February that the situation in Libya was urgent after the beheadings and that Rome was ready to fight against Islamist militants in the context of an international mission including European and North African powers.

There was no overt Western response to jihadi activity in Libya this week.

On Wednesday 14 January, multilateral direct UN-backed negotiations started in Geneva, despite the last minute boycott of the Martyr’s bloc which was misrepresented in the media as a boycott of the whole rump GNC.

Italy’s PM Matteo Renzi opened the door to a UN-sanctioned peacekeeping mission in Libya should negotiations fail. It is unclear what impact, if any, will this week’s terrorist attack in Paris have over France’s already pro-active policy in Libya.

There was no overt Western response to jihadi activity in Libya this week.

Although UNSMIL’s Chief Bernardino Leon and Libya’s Western partners continue to staunchly promote the undertaking of negotiations to follow up on the Ghadames process, hardly any positive developments have emerged from the country during the past week.

Unsurprisingly given the ongoing violence, including in the oil crescent, the UN-sponsored peace talks that were planned for 16 December did not go ahead.