i'm like look you welcome to d.w. special coverage key players in the war in libya are gathering in berlin for a summit aimed to and 9 months of fighting in the country the 2 main factions in libya's war as well as representatives of several support nations from both sides of the conflict park in attendance it follows talks last week in moscow which failed to get leave your speech stream strongman general haftorah to meet with me to a cease fire. greetings

again joining me in the studio now is political correspondent hans brandt and chief political editor. is standing by for us at the chance really mikael i'm going to start with you how significant are today's international peace talks in berlin for the future of libya. they are absolutely crucial potentially this could be a major step forward in turning the region of libya which has been spiraling spiraling into civil war over the past couple of years into a controllable more controllable scenario more and more countries have started engaging with their very own entrenched interests since we saw gaddafi ousted the former libyan dictator now the big question is when with all these major powers

sitting down at the table can can at least a benchmark ceasefire be achieved. do we know where the 2 major rivals at this point have arrived in berlin. but we know that general arrived here yesterday evening we expect him to have had bilateral meetings we've just seen the u.n. secretary general and to the chancery meeting with. machall potentially ahead of this major gathering and that was the crucial question really whether general half the road in this whole scenario who controls up to 80 percent of the country adds the oil reserves that go with that would actually sit down and talk for real we saw him turn down the opportunity to put his signature on paper on monday when he was in russia so with the u.n.

backed head of government ross who had already signed on the dotted line the question is can some kind of progress be made here and by then today michelle is stay with us of course we're splitting our screen now showing you as well as the chancellor the entrance with just teams of reporters and photographers standing by as we see dignitaries arriving as we watch this dignitary get out of the car. i want to ask you who do we see here this is angela merkel of course the german chancellor greeting. i can't i can't see you that is the back of his head. could very well be that. but. as we as we watch these live pictures i want to ask you who do we believe is attending the foreign states the heads of state who might be attending this conference today it's a very very high level meeting we've just heard that the general secretary of the

united nations is there that has the highest possible level of the united nations attending the head of the european union. is there. president francis the president of turkey has arrived president putin of. russia is expected the heads of government of great britain boris johnson and all of it to be . are expected as well as the head of the egyptian government president all sisi and representatives from the united arab emirates and then there are several other international organizations such as the arab league and we should we should mention that johnson of course the prime minister of the u.k. has just arrived very miracle taking him into the chance really. it's interesting you mention all of these old these players who are going to be here these are all

the foreign players who the united nations says they want to stay out of libya and it's curious to me it makes me wonder you know where's the room for compromise here where on the one hand the united nations says foreign players are interfering with domestic affairs in libya and at the same time these are the same people who are sitting down to hash out a resolution well that's a recognition of the fact that these foreign players are in fact this ignition and power brokers in this situation has been in the united nations and bogged on. an operation in libya for years prohibiting foreign. into being sent into the view that has had no effect whatsoever the loss of alms piles of alms has been sent into libya on both sides by these foreign powers that are playing their game their power game in this country so bringing these foreign powers to the table to discuss their interests in libya is really crucial to stopping the contest to stopping the

conflict if russia on the one hand turkey on the other for instance find some common ground that means that their clients in libya general huffed on the one hand and. russia of the internationally recognized government on the other hand will have to follow their lead michelle i want to turn back to you as you as you wait more dignitaries arriving here what is the mood what is the sense that you're getting from reporting there are people hopeful even given the fact that the talks broke down in russia just a few days ago. well i don't think there's any kind of hopeful enthusiasm we've now seen. gerard the algerian leader go inside boris johnson we've seen the u.n. secretary general go inside there and we certainly have all the players around the table who could make a difference but they also have very much diverging interests and the big question here is whether some kind of common ground can be found we already saw the draft

agreement article has a copy of it which lays down $55.00 points including that all control over the country's richest oil should be with the state all organization well whether all of these passengers that are interested in doing their separate deals also with other players like general haftar will agree on that that's a very very big question mark michel i should say as you were speaking there we saw the united states secretary of state micron peo walking into the chancellor and of course being greeted by german chancellor angela merkel and united nations secretary general antonio gutierrez. i want to ask you as we continue this. can germany and its european partners influence the peace talks as far as i'm concerned. well they certainly are major broker this is your of a front yard and this is also a question of diplomatic credibility after the iran nuclear deal is pretty much on

its last leg it's certainly not functioning and the question is whether the europeans can finally find a common line we even have european countries supporting different actors in what threatens to become a proxy war on the ground in libya but there is a growing awareness here in europe that if libya descends further into chaos this could spark yet another wave of migration it already is a key port of departure for many migrants who leave for europe and many who do. why in the mediterranean there are atrocious reports from human rights when i see. that it simply is the kind of instability that germany that europe can't afford and the aim is to stop it from becoming another syria that's how the foreign minister of germany put it in advance. tons of course this is all about libya and its future but what's at stake for truman and under the merkel here she's playing power broker

well to some extent michel you touched on that already libya is the gauge for migrants from the rest of africa that want to make it into the european union onto the european continent that has been the case for many years controlling how we see there that has arriving in live from the i'm the head of the european union right now she's being greeted by antonia good terrorists the. general secretary of the united nations and i'm going to america germany's chancellor. merkel is very involved in these talks because germany has an interest in controlling the flow of migrants from africa into europe that's in fact been held my can question has been a very significant issue and i'm going to america a. term of government. rule as it were in the last few years here so it's an issue that is very close to her heart at the same time germany has not been that see we see another big trade have to this is the head of the european

calm so michel. from from belgium he's. the head of the heads of government of the of the european union. so germany has not been deeply involved in libya with its own interests in fact at a time when gadhafi was to be deposed germany abstained on a vote in the united security not a state 6 nights of nations security council. vote. that implemented military intervention in libya and this abstention on the part of libya on the part of germany the fact that it's stayed back from getting deeply involved in libya is not part of its credibility as an honest broker in this situation so german diplomats have been very active in the last 2 months to 3 months in the background trying to set up these talks have been a lot of preparatory talks going on here in berlin for many months and in fact i

want to ask a question to you both i mean as far as your reporting tells you if there is significant progress today and if he survives cease fire deal is reached who would actually police. u.k. or. well i mean that is actually a real question whether there would be some kind of international force releasing something like that but i think we're really a far cry from that i think the basic question here is whether the major actors even have the will to put some that kind of intention on paper the ready is a u.n. weapons and bargo which simply isn't being adhered to so sicking to what you've already agreed would already be a major step forward. i imagine that germany would be looked to as a big political force in that. michel.

well at the same time germany is also very much known for its politics of being rather reserved when it comes to pushing troops on the ground or contributing to a force i think this simply isn't on the cards politically here in germany right now but there is also an awareness with the german chancellor angela merkel who is known for a political brand of trying to create stability that libya is very much the key to this so the question is if this can be pointing at least towards a political process how much germany would be willing to invest more concrete in the end hunted you want to add to that. yes there has been a demand in fact for on the part of the head of the government in libya in tripoli fired off saraj he's been given a serious in a series of interviews in recent days and one of them on said he has repeated is that he has said that kind of peaceful as

a monitoring force from the european union is something that he would support very strongly that he would wish for and here in germany in fact the german defense minister has indicated that she might be willing. to consider such such a proposal and to consider the participation of german troops in such a proposal but we have to remember that any deployment of german troops has to be approved by the german parliament that's a very very steep political hurdle to take so it's michelle is saying it's not very clear at the moment to what extent germany will not only engage diplomatically but might actually put as a boot on the ground in the situation but the demands for something like that to happen certainly are there at this point we've seen probably less than half a dozen dignitaries go into the chancellor and be greeted by. angela merkel and of course the u.n. secretary general we're still waiting for some very big players in all those who have some high stakes we're talking about of course russia what role do you see

russia playing in the negotiations today. well russia is a very very significant player in all of that russia obviously has been expanding its influence in that region significantly especially through the war in syria where it has become the major player supporting the government of bashar assad and has has helped us out in fact when that war has to say with the exception of one region in northwestern syria that is still not under government control and russia is very eager to extend that influence in the rest of the mediterranean region and has been a supporting. general for many years russia ditched try to in some sense preempt this conference of this summit today by bringing together those 2 players in moscow together with turkey one has to say last week or earlier this week and without much

success the influence that russia has on general health seems to be not as significant as russia itself things but it is a very significant player in that whole and that whole context obviously we have so many international players here so many foreign entities all vying for their own particular interest but if libya falls and that's really what's at stake here if it falls what does it mean for your street with you again. well i mean libya has been very unstable ever since general gaddafi was toppled and killed and the whole question of on the one hand was happens to migrant flows has been. unresolved in a sense since then we know that there.