According to media reports, an undisclosed meeting took place in Rome on 3 September. Its participants included: 

• Ibrahim Dbeibah: the nephew and national security advisor of the Government of National Unity’s (GNU) Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah; 
• Saddam Haftar: Khalifa Haftar’s favoured son, likely successor, and deputy commander-in-chief of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF); and 
• Massad Boulos:  President Donald Trump’s Special Middle East envoy.

Reports suggest that the US and Qatar are spearheading efforts to calm the situation and prevent any resumption of serious fighting. The meeting was therefore not merely another diplomatic conversation but may signal the culmination of a pivotal switch in the international community’s approach to the Libyan crisis. It was a direct result of a strategic shift in US policy towards Libya which now aims to regain influence and achieve stability through new tools. This is led by Washington and aims to bypass the stalled United Nations process. It appears to be based on secret communication channels, with European allies such as Italy acting as facilitators as an alternative to formal multilateral paths. Economic diplomacy also appears to be at the centre of this approach with the use of investments and energy projects as a fundamental tool to create common ground and achieve stability.

It signals a radical change and would end the attempt to build democratic institutions in Libya from the bottom up. It could offer a faster path to short-term temporary stability and secure economic interests. However, it also carries the risk of entrenching family-based power structures — i.e. the Haftar and Dbeibah families in eastern and western Libya, respectively — at the expense of institutional democratic development which could potentially lead to future conflicts.