Representatives of Libya's long-divided eastern and western administrations signed an agreement on Sunday to hold presidential and parliamentary elections within 24 months, marking the most concrete step toward reunification in years. The deal, signed at the headquarters of the United Nations Support Mission in Tripoli, emerged from a small-format negotiation process known as the 4+4 Committee — comprising two representatives each from Libya's four main institutions — after months of UN-sponsored talks that began in Rome and continued in Tunis.

Libya has been split between rival governments since the NATO-backed uprising that toppled longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. A deeper fracture emerged in 2014, leaving the country effectively divided between the internationally recognised Government of National Unity, led by Abdulhamid Dbeibah and based in Tripoli in the west, and the rival Government of National Stability in the east, aligned with military commander Khalifa Haftar. A ceasefire was reached in 2020, but a political settlement has remained elusive. Elections planned for December 2021 collapsed over disputes about candidate eligibility, leaving the country in prolonged deadlock.

The agreement signed on Sunday addresses several of those long-standing sticking points. It provides for the restructuring of Libya's national electoral commission — naming specific individuals to lead it — and sets out amendments to electoral laws covering both presidential and parliamentary races. Critically, it stipulates that elections must be held under a single executive authority and unified national institutions. Both Dbeibah and Haftar welcomed the deal.