Anti-Government Protests In Beirut; Libya Summit to Call for Sanctions If Ceasefire Violated
ALLEN: Protests are turning violent in Lebanon as demonstrators flood the streets of Beirut. The Lebanese Red Cross says at least 200 people have been injured. The country's president has deployed the military to disperse the crowds and demonstrators are furious over the government's failure to appoint a new cabinet and for the lack of economic stability. World leaders are meeting in Berlin this weekend. Their aim: an end to the fighting in war-torn Libya. According to a draft communique, attendees will call for sanctions on anyone who violates the cease- fire there. The U.S. is sending secretary of state Mike Pompeo to the summit. Other countries are sending national leaders. CNN's Becky Anderson has spoken with the U.N. special representative for Libya and asked him about what he understood to be the U.S. position on the country.</s>GHASSAN SALAME, U.N. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE TO LIBYA: The Americans so far have concentrated their action on two areas. One is a direct fight against terrorism -- and they are quite active and even more active of late than they have been in the past -- and ensuring the free flow of oil, of Libyan oil, into the international market. And they immediately mobilize when there is a threat to that.</s>ALLEN: She has this closer look now at what is driving the war in Libya.</s>BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): It had been hailed a moment of hope: the fall of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. But nearly a decade on, this is what much of Libya looks like today, the strewn wreckage of a country splintered by conflict between two warring sides. The Government of National Accord or GNA, runs the capital and much of the country's northwest. In the east, a parallel government controlling nearly two-thirds of the country. It is led by General Khalifa Haftar and his well-armed liberal Libyan National Army or LNA. Neither side, though, is acting in isolation and battlefield Libya has many hands at work. Haftar is generously backed by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, who view political Islam as a threat and see Haftar as the country's last line of defense. They are joined by Russia and France, while the GNA sees support from Turkey, Qatar and a handful of E.U. states such as Italy. But importantly, it has the rubber stamp of U.N. legitimacy. Despite that, it only survives through outside friends of its own and mostly Turkey, who have gotten involved directly. President Erdogan recently receiving authorization from his parliament to deploy troops there.</s>RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, PRESIDENT OF TURKEY (through translator): If Haftar's attacks against the people and legitimate government of Libya continue, we will never refrain from teaching him the lesson he deserves.</s>ANDERSON (voice-over): Being there is crucial to President Erdogan's strategic interests beyond the Middle East, burnishing his regional reputation as a power player. Haftar, though, says, is up for the fight.</s>GEN. KHALIFA HAFTAR, LIBYAN NATIONAL ARMY (through translator): We hereby except the challenge. We are announcing a mass mobilization of our troops. We call for a holy fight.</s>ANDERSON (voice-over): Meanwhile Russia has been bolstering its presence around the Mediterranean. There has been a rising number of reported Russian mercenaries, supporting Haftar's troops on the ground in Libya. Moscow claims that they do not represent the Russian state, as they have also claimed in Ukraine. But from Syria to Libya, president Vladimir Putin's expansionist strategy remains clear. The United States, on the other hand, is being more capricious.</s>ANDERSON (voice-over): It launched airstrikes, targeting ISIS and Al Qaeda in 2015 but then pulled its troops amid the surging political violence. Its position now isn't quite clear. And in the vacuum of war, chaos: hundreds of thousands of migrants using Libya as a dangerous springboard into Europe, the continent, for the most part, calling for a political solution to the bloody conflict -- Becky Anderson, CNN, Abu Dhabi.</s>ALLEN: A political solution, well, that is the goal of the peace summit that is beginning as we mentioned and CNN's Melissa Bell is covering that angle for us. She's live in Paris. Good morning to you, Melissa. We just saw, we have two leaders, countries aligning with either. And where does this summit start to try to sort this out?</s>MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, with a great deal of complication, Natalie. Because as that report from Becky Anderson just highlighted, this is not just about a country divided but about world powers that have gotten involved and are also deeply divided on the question of who should be in charge and what political way forward can be found. Of course, this conference taking place today has been planned for months, five meetings leading up to it to get all the parties involved around the table with many disagreements with who should be around that table and who should not, with some of the regional leaders excluded. That's upset the head of the U.N.-backed Tripoli based government and doubts about whether he would turn up at all. So it gives you an idea of how complicated this is going to be. Around that table are going to be, however, Natalie, the five permanent members of Security Council. Can they finally get some kind of enforcement of that arms embargo that has been in place for so long but flouted so openly for almost as long? That is one of the big questions. We've seen, as you mentioned a moment ago, that draft communique, suggesting sanctions against some of the global foreign powers that might be flouting that arms embargo by bringing arms to one side or the other. A recent report by the U.N. suggested that a number of countries involved citing in particular, Jordan, UAE and Turkey. Can those sanctions prevent that kind of intervention? This is a real test for the U.N., in particular and also a test of all those around the table. In a sense it's that foreign intervention that has given added urgency to this search for peace in the country. But it is also precisely, Natalie, what will make it all the harder to achieve.</s>ALLEN: Absolutely. When you look at the lineup there of the countries behind these leaders, you don't see active presence of the United States. We know Mike Pompeo is at the summit. But why is the United States holding back when it comes to Libya? What do we know about that?</s>BELL: Extremely interesting to see what Pompeo's position is on this as Becky was saying in that report. There was a very clear focus on the fight against terror and many concerns at one point when the ISIS, in particular, was beginning to show a presence on the ground. But much less clarity on the question of the political resolution. The man who heads that U.N. mission in Libya was just saying in that clip you played a moment ago, it is, of course, important to have intervened to help that flow of oil continue to help stop the rise of Islamist extremists in the country. But it's also going to be crucial for it to decide where it stands on this much more urgent but perhaps much more complicated question of precisely what kind of political solution can be found. There is also a retreat of Europe on this question, on the question of what should happen in Libya. Europe has been divided and therefore fairly quiet. Hence the increasing presence of Russia and Turkey on the ground and around the table today.</s>ALLEN: So Europe and United States, we'll see what this summit bears out. Melissa Bell, thanks so much for us, live from Paris. You saw a bit of Becky Anderson's interview with the U.N.'s special representative for Libya. Hear more of what he has to say coming up on "</s>CONNECT THE WORLD," 3: 00 pm In London and 7:00 pm in Abu Dhabi, right here on CNN.</s>ALLEN (voice-over): A new sense of urgency dominated this year's women's marches across the United States and they have a message for the White House. We'll give it to you after this.