Gaddafi Accepts Brokered Peace Deal?

What’s the Big Idea?

Arab societies have pleasantly surprised a Western world skeptical of the region’s ability to create democratic governments on their own—perhaps the greatest surprise was that citizens overcame decades worth of Western financial support for dictatorial regimes. While governments in Tunisia and Egypt fell with amazing speed, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi has violently grasped at power in the face of international condemnation. The result has been a united international front against his regime, culminating in a strong U.N. Security Council resolution against his military’s forces. 

What’s the Most Recent Development?

A delegation of the African Union, including South African president Jacob Zuma, will meet with Libya’s rebel leaders in order to broker a peace deal it claims has already been accepted by Gaddafi and his cabinet-level supporters. But as Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught said: “The devil is not in the details, the devil is in the enforcement.” She notes that Gaddafi was quick to agree to the U.N.’s call for a government ceasefire, only to push further eastward against rebel forces. The crucial test of the new alleged ceasefire will be what authority the African Union can truly garner with Gaddafi’s men, who have shown a violent resistance toward outside intervention.