Libya's political future at the centre of an event in Washington on relations with the U.S.

5th April 2025

Nova News reports on the National Council on U.S. - Libya Relations’ 7th Annual Conference, noting Mr. Moin Kikhia’s speech, in which he called on Libya to embrace a new framework for governance based on decentralisation.

The 7th annual conference of the National Council on US-Libya Relations (NCUSLR) was held in Washington. The event, attended by experts, analysts and representatives of the business and institutional world of the two countries, represented an opportunity to discuss the political future of Libya in light of the decade-long stalemate between the UN-recognised Government of National Unity (GNN), based in Tripoli and led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dabaiba, and the Government of National Stability (GSN) in the east of the country, led by the Prime Minister Osama Hamad, appointed by the House of Representatives and the Libyan National Army (LNA) under the command of General Khalifa Haftar.

Particular attention was paid to issues related to the organisation of elections, interference in Libya by armed groups and mercenaries hired by foreign governments, and the economic context, with development prospects that could be associated with greater collaboration with the United States and Western partners.

The conference, entitled “Libya's de facto partition; What does the future hold?” opened with welcome speeches by Hani Shenid, founder and President of the NCUSLR, and the Ambassador Richard Norland, Special Envoy of the United States for Libya and former head of the US diplomatic representation in the country. “We have seen significant progress on certain aspects, such as the resumption of oil production,” the Ambassador said, reiterating the international community’s interest in Libya and stressing that several obstacles to the stabilisation of the country remain. “The political divisions between East and West are deepening every day, and there are mercenaries and foreign forces that maintain a presence in the country, using Libya as a platform to destabilise Africa,” he explained, referring to the Russian mercenaries of the Africa Corps, a network that operates on the continent in place of the Wagner Company.

The topic of organising elections and the proposals put forward by the various political actors in Libya to overcome the stalemate between East and West was at the centre of the discussions held during the panels and the speeches of the Libyan institutional actors who participated in the conference. From a federalist approach to organising national parliamentary elections, to popular referendums and reconciliation processes, the speeches of the representatives of the Libyan institutions present in Washington confirmed the internal divisions in Libya on the approach to adopt to give a political future to the country.

Moin Kikhia, founder of the Democratic Institute of Libya, who previously served at the Ministry of Finance, said that “old” solutions such as the three-state federal system are no longer good. “Decentralisation must be formalised while preserving a national identity: Each region should manage its security with a national defense system for the management of sovereignty in a broad sense, while armed groups and militias should be integrated into formal state structures to fight lawlessness,” he explained. 

Khaled Al Mishri, President of the High Council of State of Libya, agreed, expressing himself in favour of organising national parliamentary elections, stressing that the role of the UN and international organisations is “essential” to stabilise the country.

“There should be parliamentary elections, and the Presidential Council should remain until things stabilise,” he said.