Libyan sides edge towards transitional government
Libyan factions made progress towards agreeing to a new transitional government in talks arranged by the UN, the international body said.
Participants at the discussions in Geneva, Switzerland, agreed on a means of choosing the government, whose formation has been the subject of wrangling among Libya’s main factions.
On Saturday, Stephanie Williams, acting UN envoy in Libya, said the agreement represented the “best possible compromise” on the issue and could lead to the selection of a transitional government within weeks.
The talks were part of a wider peace process that also involves a ceasefire and an economic component.
Since 2014, Libya has been split between rival factions in Tripoli, in the west, and the eastern city of Benghazi.
The Government of National Accord in Tripoli is backed by Turkey, while the House of Representatives in the east supports Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army. But both sides represent sometimes unstable coalitions of different political, regional and armed factions.
The latest push towards peace began after the GNA with Turkish support turned back a 14-month LNA assault on Tripoli in June.
A ceasefire was agreed to in Geneva in October.
In November, the UN invited 75 Libyans to join a political dialogue in Tunis, which set a date of December 24, 2021, for presidential and parliamentary elections and agreed on the need for a unified transitional government.
That will be responsible for preparing for the elections, combating corruption and restoring public services across Libya, Ms Williams said.
But the Tunis meeting stalled when the delegates started discussing the make-up of the new government. Saturday’s agreement was made by a smaller committee.
All 75 members of the dialogue will vote next week on the mechanism the Geneva committee agreed to on Saturday.
The news comes after the UN Security Council gave permission on Friday for Jan Kubis, the UN envoy in Lebanon, to lead the body’s political mission in Libya, a post that has been vacant for nearly a year.
The council had until 5pm New York time on Friday to object to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ selection of the former Slovak foreign minister, who previously served as the senior UN envoy in Afghanistan and Iraq, but diplomats said there were no objections.
Mr Kubis will replace Ghassan Salame, who quit last March. Ms Williams was praised for her handling of peace talks.
The Libya post was expected to go to Nickolay Mladenov, the UN special envoy for the Middle East Peace Process, but last month he turned down the offer for personal reasons.
There were objections to two previous suggestions, and the US then insisted the job be split between a special envoy handling the diplomacy and someone to run the UN operation.
The African group in the UN wanted someone from Africa in the diplomatic job, but agreed to the second role, running the operation.
The UN announced the appointment last month of Raisedon Zenenga of Zimbabwe as assistant secretary general and co-ordinator of the UN Support Mission in Libya.