 led by Commander Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive against the UN-backed government. For more on the escalating violence, I spoke a brief time ago with Thomas Hill from the U.S. Institute of Peace. Thank you very much for joining me. The disintegration of Libya has obviously been going on for some time. What can break the deadlock right now? I'm of the belief that until there are significant engagements by the principal actors who support groups within Libya, that would be France, Italy, the Gulf States, potentially Turkey, as well as bringing in groups that have the convening power like the U.S., that you cannot resolve this problem. The UN alone leading the peace process has proven to be a failure. Do these various countries have a plan? Can they reach an agreement on how to move forward? I think the problem is there's too many plans. The French have a plan. The Italians have a plan. The Saudis have their own vision. Maybe plan is the wrong word. They have their own visions for how they'd like to see this go. What's needed at this point is responsible actors to bring these disparate groups together to figure out what does a political solution look like and do that in a way that brings fighting and humanitarian suffering to an end as quickly as possible. One of the key players in this, of course, Haftar doesn't think there is a political solution. Is he right? Well, he's right in the sense that he controls many of the cards that determine whether or not there is a political solution. So if he's not committed to a political solution, there won't be a political solution. So what then? So what then is a good question? Now he is a client of several other states who control his resources, military, financial, and if they bring pressure to bear, I believe he can be pushed to the negotiation table and make concessions. Right now he seems to have a very long leash and is using that leash to act in ways that are detrimental to the peace process. Is there anybody in Libya right now who can unite the country? If there is, that person has not yet emerged. Haftar is an incredibly polarizing figure. I think he underestimated how polarizing he is when he launched his assault on Tripoli because as you've seen, opposition groups who traditionally would not get along have united against him. Saraj, who is the head of the GNA, the alternative to Haftar, really does not enjoy enough domestic support to be a counterbalance. Very briefly, what is the U.S. role in all this? So the U.S. for the last two administrations have really taken a hands-off approach. They have viewed this as a European problem to be resolved by European states. That approach, I think, as you've seen, has led to a fractious response to the Libya crisis. The U.S. should be playing a convening role. I don't advocate them getting involved militarily or even driving the political process, but rather acting as a convening body. Tom Hill, thanks very much indeed for joining me. Thank you for having me. Thank you.