Since the beginning of the summer of 2022, the Algerian regime has developed enormous lobbying to propose mediation between Tunis and Tripoli with the aim of reconciling the two parties who were at odds because of several major political misunderstandings.
The discreet efforts of the Algerian authorities seem to have paid off since bilateral relations between Tunisia and the government in Tripoli have improved markedly and Tunisian President Kais Saied will soon receive the dividends of a promising start to reconciliation.
Indeed, thanks to the multiple interventions of Algiers, the government of Tripoli directed by Abdel Hamid Dbeibah undertook appeasing gestures in the direction of Tunisia whereas strong tensions oppose the two parts since at least 2021. Relations between the Tunisian governments and Libyans were not in good shape since Dbeibah came to power in Tripoli in March 2021, despite the fact that President Saïed is the first president to travel to Libya, a few days after Dbeiba entered Tripoli.
The coming to power of Dbeibah in Tripoli prolonged the blocking of the activities of Tunisian labor and businessmen in Libya. The joint commission between the two countries, which was scheduled for April 2021, had been repeatedly postponed. The main subject fueling the tensions between Tripoli and Tunis concerned the financial disputes of the Libyans with Tunisia around 900 million dollars of Libyan debts to Tunisia. Debts that have never been repaid while neighboring Tunisia is going through a terrible financial crisis. This dispute would have blocked the intention of the Libyans to make a deposit in Tunisia, announced in March 2021.
In this context, the Algerian government stole a piece of news to the aid of Kais Saied’s Tunisia by offering its mediation and persuading the leaders of Tripoli to return to better sentiments with regard to the masters of Carthage.
Algiers’ interventions with the Abdel Hamid Dbeibah government, also known as the government of national unity (GNU), ended up unblocking the situation by allowing the launch of a real process of reconciliation.
Proof of this is that on December 2, 2022, Libya’s debts to Tunisia found a happy outcome for Tunisia since these debts would be paid by the end of the current year, reassured the head of government. of Libyan national unity, Abdelhamid Dbaiba, on a two-day official visit to Tunisia.
He made these remarks at the headquarters of the Tunisian Union of Industry, Trade, and Handicrafts (UTICA), Tunisia’s employers’ federation. According to Mr. Dbaiba, the amount of Libya’s debts is around 250 million dollars, including 85 million in the electricity sector and 30 million in the civil aviation sector.
The same Libyan interlocutor even promised to strengthen the “solidity of historical relations” between the two countries and the two peoples, stressing that Libya “remains in the construction phase and needs Tunisian expertise and skills”.
“The integration between the two countries in addition to the establishment of economic partnerships is the motto of this visit and the most outstanding title of the Libyan-Tunisian cooperation in the future”, he noted. A new discourse that strongly delights Tunisia in the hope that the Libyan outlets of this new cooperation will allow it to attenuate a little the effects of the financial crisis which is suffocating it. Once again, Kais Saied can say thank you to…. Alger.
