PARIS: Libya’s rival leaders are expected in Paris next Tuesday under pressure to agree to a political roadmap for the war-struck country that could see elections held before the end of 2018, according to the French presidency.
The major international conference dedicated to the oil-rich north African country has been organized to bring together the rival factions for power, as well as neighboring countries and regional backers.
“After seven years of conflict and tensions, this unprecedented conference ... aims to open a new period of stability and cooperation which is awaited by the Libyan people,” a statement from the French presidency said on Sunday.
An aide to French president Emmanuel Macron said the Libyan leaders had agreed in principle to a roadmap that would pave the way for parliamentary and presidential elections, if possible before the end of the year.
The invitees include Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj, head of Libya’s UN-backed unity government in Tripoli in the west, and 75-year-old military strongman Khalifa Haftar, whose rival Libyan National Army dominates the country’s east.
Aguila Saleh Issa, the parliament speaker based in the eastern town of Tobruk who opposes the UN-backed administration, is also expected, as is Khalid Al-Mishri, the newly elected head of the High Council of State.
Years of mediation by the United Nations, as well as former colonial power Italy, have failed to bring stability to Libya which descended into chaos after the ousting of dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
Since then, the country has become a new base for the Daesh extremist group and other extremists, as well as a departure point for hundreds of thousands of African migrants seeking to enter Europe.
European leaders see stabilising the country as key to tackling the joint security and immigration threats, and Macron threw himself into finding a solution shortly after his election in May last year.
The 40-year-old French leader brought Sarraj and Haftar together in Paris where they agreed a cease-fire and to hold elections in 2018 — a move that irked the Italian government at the time which was blindsided by Macron’s diplomacy.
It remains to be seen if the conference on Tuesday will lead to real change on the ground, after several false dawns since the fall of Qaddafi and peace deals that have failed to be honored.
The UN special envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, has given up trying to implement a 2015 political agreement to set up a unity government, instead focusing on trying to hold elections as a way to unify the country.
Representatives from 19 countries involved in Libya have been invited — an acknowledgement that the country’s problems can only be resolved if regional powers agree on the roadmap.
These include Egypt, Russia and the United Arab Emirates which have backed Haftar and the rival administration in Tobruk in the east, not the UN-recognized government based in the capital Tripoli.
Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as well as neighbors Algeria and Tunisia will also send representatives to the talks.
France’s Macron to host Libya summit pushing for elections
France’s Macron to host Libya summit pushing for elections
- France is set to host a UN-sponsored conference on Libya aimed at securing elections in the North African country and commitments to a joint political roadmap from its warring factions
- French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said the conference at the Elysee Palace on Tuesday will bring together key Libyan players and representatives of two dozen countries and international organizations
South Korea will boost medical school admissions to tackle physician shortage
- Jeong said all of the additional students will be trained through regional physician programs
SEOUL: South Korea plans to increase medical school admissions by more than 3,340 students from 2027 to 2031 to address concerns about physician shortages in one of the fastest-aging countries in the world, the government said Tuesday.
The decision was announced months after officials defused a prolonged doctors’ strike by backing away from a more ambitious increase pursued by Seoul’s former conservative government. Even the scaled-down plan drew criticism from the country’s doctors’ lobby, which said the move was “devoid of rational judgment.”
Kwak Soon-hun, a senior Health Ministry official, said that the president of the Korean Medical Association attended the healthcare policy meeting but left early to boycott the vote confirming the size of the admission increases.
The KMA president, Kim Taek-woo, later said the increases would overwhelm medical schools when combined with students returning from strikes or mandatory military service, and warned that the government would be “fully responsible for all confusion that emerges in the medical sector going forward.” The group didn’t immediately signal plans for further walkouts.
Health Minister Jeong Eun Kyeong said the annual medical school admissions cap will increase from the current 3,058 to 3,548 in 2027, with further hikes planned in subsequent years to reach 3,871 by 2031. This represents an average increase of 668 students per year over the five-year period, far smaller than the 2,000-per-year hike initially proposed by the government of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, which sparked the months long strike by thousands of doctors.
Jeong said all of the additional students will be trained through regional physician programs, which aim to increase the number of doctors in small towns and rural areas that have been hit hardest by demographic pressures. The specific admissions quota for each medical school will be finalized in April.
