First Steps on the Long Slog to Peace in the Middle East

First Steps on the Long Slog to Peace in the Middle East
U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura with Syrian opposition group representatives, Geneva, Switzerland, March 16, 2016 (U.N. photo by Anne-Laure Lechat).

This week, three of the United Nations’ thankless peace missions—in Libya, Yemen and Syria—will mark steps forward. To be sure, the definition of success is modest. For now, just reducing violence and beginning a political process is the best that one can hope for. But the U.N. deserves credit for persevering and nudging the parties along.

Even as U.N. negotiators, sometimes with the ambiguous help of the great powers and regional leaders, begin cajoling the warring parties in the Middle East’s three terrible crises to compromise, the prospects for real peace are distant. The U.N. process not only aims to stop the fighting, but also to bring all the political actors into a process to reform or replace governments that were culpable or incapable. That’s a long slog. Building new institutions, fostering economic development, facilitating the return of refugees, and addressing questions of justice and reconciliation are all also necessary components of a stable peace, but they usually have to wait for basic conditions of security and a legitimate governing structure to be restored.

In Libya, there’s now action to implement a mid-December agreement between the country’s two competing forces. A new National Unity Government is in formation, and a presidency council let by interim Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj arrived in Tripoli on April 1, awaiting the formal endorsement by the two sides of the arrangement, which now enjoys international recognition. The former contestants for power are showing no enthusiasm for the new state of affairs, however, and the U.N. will need to be careful to keep their disenchantment from triggering a return to all-out violence or from undermining the new government in other ways. How Egypt and other outside powers handle their ally, Gen. Khalifa Haftar, and the anti-Islamist forces he commands will also be a critical factor in consolidating this latest achievement.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review