Prospects for a UN-sponsored power-sharing peace deal in Libya between the conflict-wracked North African country’s two rival governments dimmed Monday as heavy fighting erupted in Benghazi.

The UN’s envoy to Libya, Spanish diplomat Bernardino León, who has been seeking for months to hammer out a political settlement between the parallel governments, remained locked in negotiations in Morocco as a deadline for peace talks came and went Sunday.

León warned last week that his September 20 deadline was the “very last moment” for Libyans to come together.

The envoy is now calling now for an immediate ceasefire between forces loyal to the country’s internationally recognized government and Islamist militants in Libya’s east, who represent one group in the many-faceted conflict. He also is stressing the need to give the ongoing political dialogue a chance.

Under the León deal, the country’s various factions would form a government of national accord in a complex arrangement that some critics call unworkable.

The UN mission in Libya condemned the military escalation in Benghazi, which started Saturday when forces under the command of General Khalifa Haftar launched airstrikes against Islamist militants, some of whom are allied to Islamic State (IS) extremists.

“The timing of airstrikes clearly aims at undermining the ongoing efforts to end the conflict,” mission officials said, just when negotiations have entered “a final and most critical stage.”

At least six people were killed and 10 wounded when the fighting escalated Saturday. Mohamed Hejazi, a spokesman for Haftar’s forces, said the general’s Operation Dignity forces had launched a new offensive against Islamist positions in Benghazi, which have been engulfed by fighting for more than a year. More than 100,000 people have fled Benghazi in the past few months.

The fighting raging in and around Benghazi is just one front in a multi-factional struggle which at its heart is pitting two parallel governments — a mainly Islamist upstart Tripoli-run government and an internationally recognized administration now in exile in the eastern Libya — against each other.

The Islamist militants in Benghazi are aligned with neither of the parallel governments, although some elements in Tripoli sympathize with them and are instinctively opposed to any action undertaken by the anti-Islamist Haftar.

Before the increase in hostilities, Libyan officials connected to both governments suggested a deal may be close and would be announced after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which ends Thursday evening.

The weekend hostilities appear to have undermined hopes, however, as talk participants began trading barbs and threatening walk-outs as they accused each other of trying to sabotage a deal.

Officials from the House of Representatives (HoR), the internationally recognized parliament, and the Tripoli-based General National Congress, warned of growing tensions and a breakdown in negotiations.

“Our team in Skhirat is studying suspending our participation in the peace talks because of the military escalation in Benghazi,” Abdulrahman Swahili, a GNC parliament member told Libya’s Nabaa TV.

Islamist Justice and Construction party, a key force in the Tripoli-run government, condemned what it called the “terrorist acts” of Hafter and, in a statement issued Sunday evening, accused his forces of “targeting civilians at random” in the city.

An official HoR statement reacted angrily to the UN’s characterization of the military escalation in Benghazi as a bid to doom overall peace negotiations. “The army is fighting IS terrorists in Benghazi who do not believe in civil government,” it said. “And the people are supporting the army.”

Adding to the confused picture were local media reports on Monday that HoR Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni has been prevented by military officers ostensibly loyal to his administration from boarding a plane at Beida’s Labraq airport.

This is the second time this month that al-Thinni has reportedly been blocked from leaving. On September 16, the English-language Libya Herald newspaper reported officers stopped al-Thinni from flying to a conference in Malta on the orders General Hafter.

In a statement urging ongoing talks and cessation of violence in Benghazi, the UN mission in Libya warned: “The parties in Libya now have a historic opportunity…that brings an end to the divisions and suffering, and allows for a new page to be turned in Libya.”

Western governments have been backing the UN-led peace deal to usher in a power-sharing deal.

In a joint statement, the U.S. and European Union cautioned: “This escalation of violence underscores the urgent need to complete the political dialogue process as soon as possible.”
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