Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, two US allies that have been fighting a proxy war in Libya since shortly after the 2011 overthrow of Gaddafi, have agreed in principle to resolve their differences, The Huffington Post reported.
This previously unreported commitment, made between top leaders under pressure from President Barack Obama during talks at Camp David on May 14, suggests that peace negotiations in Berlin between the Gulf states' Libyan proxies may yet bear fruit.
The Qatar-backed, Islamist-aligned Tripoli government controls most of western Libya, while the UAE-linked, internationally recognized Tobruk government dominates the east.
Peace between them would allow the two governments, their Gulf allies and the US to focus on fighting the al Qaeda- and Islamic State-affiliated militant groups that have gained ground in Libya during its ongoing civil war.
Obama was the first to bring up the Gulf states' proxy war at the Camp David summit, according to a senior Gulf diplomat present at the meeting. "The president said people from this table are supporting each side in Libya," the diplomat told HuffPost.
Obama emphasized that he would like to see an "inclusive" political solution -- implying he was unwilling to allow the UAE-backed Tobruk government to dominate other actors, specifically the Qatar-backed Islamists in Tripoli.
The president's comment prompted Qatar's ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, to appeal to the top official present from the UAE, Crown Prince Muhammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to agree to a political solution, according to the diplomat.
Zayed then said he would work with the Qataris in Libya, according to multiple diplomatic sources.
The Gulf diplomat present at the meeting, who is familiar with the past few years of Qatari and UAE involvement in Libya, called that commitment a first-of-its-kind agreement. It is understood to have paved the way for the current talks, particularly because the two Gulf states agreed not to criticize the peace process publicly.
The revelation suggests that Obama's Camp David summit accomplished more than has been previously appreciated. A White House spokesman declined to comment on the specific conversation, but noted that Libya was a pressing worry discussed at the summit.
The agreement between Qatar and the UAE represents a noteworthy softening in the positions of the two countries, which have dramatically different views of political Islam. Qatar and its ally, the Islamist government of Turkey, have proved willing to back Islamist groups throughout the Muslim world in the wake of the Arab Spring.
The UAE and its ally, Egypt, which often equate political Islam with extremism, have gone so far as to intervene directly to undermine Islamists, launching air strikes within Libya.