UK expects to be asked by new Libyan government to deploy troops to train fledging force despite rival factions rejecting unity accord

Britain hopes to send hundreds of troops to Libya after the signing of a UN-sponsored peace deal that nominally unifies the two rival Libyan governments.

This comes despite the agreement being denounced as illegitimate by some of the groups that it is meant to unite.

The UK expects to be asked by the new Libyan government to deploy troops to train and advise the country’s fledgling force as it attempts to stabilise Libya and stem the advance of Islamic State, which has a coastal base. A fortnight after sending fighter jets to Syrian skies, the Ministry of Defence is ready to send up to 1,000 troops in a non-combat capacity, the defence secretary, Michael Fallon, announced in an interview with Forces TV.

In a separate statement, David Cameron said: “Importantly, this agreement means the international community can now engage with one unified, representative government in Libya in the fight against Daesh [Isis] and the migrant traffickers.”

The move demonstrates the west’s optimism in the fragile peace deal signed on Thursday in Morocco by some members of Libya’s rival parliaments in Tripoli and the eastern city of Tobruk. The deal’s supporters hope it will hasten the end of an 18-month civil war, as well as five years of political violence that followed the uprising against former dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

UN Libya envoy Martin Kobler, whose predecessor is accused of bias towards the Tobruk government, said the signing was a “historic day” for the country and insisted the door was open for non-signatories to sign in the future.

“The signing of the Libyan political agreement is the first step on the path of building a democratic Libyan state based on the principles of human rights and the rule of law,” he said.

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But the sustainability of the deal has been thrown into doubt after key players on both sides did not attend or support the signing ceremony. Earlier this week president of Tripoli’s rebel government, Nuri Abu Sahmain, and Aguila Saleh, his opposite number at the official government in Tobruk, announced joint opposition to the plan, branding it foreign meddling.

The deal was accepted in person by 30 members of the Tripoli faction, who seized power in the Libyan capital in August 2014, and forced the internationally recognised government to retreat to Tobruk. But Jamal Zubia, spokesman for the rebel government, claimed that those who signed the unity agreement did not speak for their former allies in Tripoli and were merely puppets for the international community.

“People who are signing this UN draft – none of them have any authority. When you send unauthorised people to sign, it’s a fake document,” he said. “If they want a democratic country, they must do it in a democratic way – they can’t force us to accept it. If they want to make it a colony, then call it a colony, but don’t pass it to us as a gift from the UN.”

The suspicion some Libyans feel for the deal has led analysts to question whether the new government would prioritise the immediate invitation of western powers.

Mattia Toaldo, a Libya specialist at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said: “I would be very surprised if some of the factions that are the backbone of this new government would endorse a foreign intervention against Isis. I think there are a lot of illusions in Europe about what this government implies in the fight against Isis … To accuse them of being puppets of the west is a bit unfair.”

In an example of the complexities of enlisting western support in Libya, a group of US commandos were reportedly ordered out of the country this week by one Libyan body despite being invited there by another.

Nevertheless, a UK government source said the new Libyan administration expected to request British military support. A small UK force of about half a dozen – along with a similar number from Italy – would be sent initially to scope out the feasibility of the anti-Isis operation, such as location for training and the potential threat level.

But the new government will have many more security challenges than just Isis, and may struggle even to take office in Tripoli owing to the antipathy of members of city’s current government. Frederic Wehrey, a Libya specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: “The danger is that it becomes yet another third body that has to meet outside the capital or even worse outside the country.

“There is a plan for [local] armed actors to help secure the new government. But the problem is that the actual army and police are quite weak so we would be relying on militias again. And that’s the larger issue – how do you create a security force under the control of the authorities, while at the same time demobilising the militias?”

Human Rights Watch warned against any dynamic that would strengthen Libya’s militias, hundreds of which have had a malign influence on Libyan life in the absence of strong state institutions since 2011.

HRW’s Libya researcher, Hanan Salah, said: “Now that the UN and the international community have brokered a deal between some factions in the Libya conflict with a view for a future unity government, they should pay equal attention to ensuring that militia members who committed grave human rights violations, and have been operating with impunity for the past four years, have no role or contribution to this future government.”