Italy hosts conference to end Libya’s seven-year war

The peace conference in Palermo brings together not just Libya’s major opposing sides, but competing foreign powers, as well.

The peace conference in Italy aims to bring stability to Libya by finding ways to end the seven years of fighting and division.

But it is not just the UN-backed Tripoli government and General Khalifa Haftar, with Egyptian and Russian support, that are wrangling. Within the EU, France and Italy have different priorities, and the US, too, wants to bolster its influence in the resource-rich North African country.

With so many competing interests inside and outside the country, peace in Libya could prove an elusive goal.

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull reports from Palermo.