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China, Tunisia Call for New Efforts to Stabilize Libya

by Associated Press

   BEIJING --

   The foreign ministers of China and Tunisia called Wednesday for new
   efforts to reach a negotiated peace in Libya and prevent the unstable
   North African nation from dissolving into a humanitarian disaster on a
   level with Syria.
   China's Wang Yi said Libya is attracting militants from across the
   globe now being driven from Iraq and Syria, requiring the international
   community to step in and prevent the country becoming "a new source of
   international terrorism.''
   "We should prevent Libya from becoming the next Syria," Wang told
   reporters.
   Tunisia's Khemaies Jhinaoui, whose country borders Libya, said a
   political rather than military solution is needed based on a 2015
   United Nations-brokered peace deal.
   "Libya should realize its security, independence and territorial
   integrity and avoid the misfortune of national disruption," Jhinaoui
   said.
   China joined Russia in abstaining on a 2011 U.N. vote that imposed a
   no-fly zone over Libya to protect civilians amid civil war, but later
   complained that NATO overstepped its mandate in enforcing the measure.
   Following that, the two countries have joined to block U.S.-mandated
   intervention in the Syrian conflict, although Russia has since
   dispatched forces to back President Bashar Assad.
   The 2011 overthrow and killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi
   spawned chaos and created a power and security vacuum that turned Libya
   into a breeding ground for militias and militants, including Islamic
   State group and al-Qaida affiliates. It has also made Libya a gateway
   for thousands of migrants from Africa and elsewhere seeking to cross
   the Mediterranean to Italy.
   Since 2014, Libya has been split between rival governments and
   parliaments based in the western and eastern regions, each backed by
   different militias, tribes and political factions.
   The 2015 peace deal sought to create a unity government but failed
   because the U.N.-backed government now in Tripoli has been unable to
   win the endorsement of Libya's internationally recognized Parliament in
   eastern Tobruk.