Antonio Guterres outlines three prerequisites for overcoming the crisis in Libya
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has affirmed the need to achieve three main demands to overcome the crisis in Libya.
These, he said, are namely the maintenance of peace, an urgent agreement between the House of Representatives (Parliament) and the High State Council to allow elections to take place, and full support for reconciliation and the political process by all foreign parties.
At a press conference on Wednesday at UN headquarters in New York, ahead of the convening of the high-level segment of the 77th session of the General Assembly next week, Mr. Guterres called for the need for the international community to work together to ensure that the elections are held as soon as possible.
Guterres called for the need to achieve three main demands to overcome the crisis, the first being the preservation of "peace at all costs", saying that "this means maintaining peace between the East and the West, but also maintaining peace with regard to the recent clashes that took place in Tripoli with armed groups supporting either Dbaiba or Bachagha", as well as the need to avoid hostilities.
Since the postponement of last December's elections, Libya has been in a political stalemate, aggravated by the existence of two rival governments, the parliamentary-appointed government of Prime Minister Fathi Bachagh and the national unity government led by Prime Minister Abdelhamid al-Dbaiba.
This situation has heightened tension and increased the number of armed clashes between the two sides, the latest of which took place on 27 August and left 44 people dead and 159 injured.
UN Secretary-General has also called for the urgent need to reach an agreement between the House of Representatives and the High State Council to allow for the legal changes and revisions necessary to hold the elections.
He stressed that this issue "is extremely important because there is a legal problem that is difficult to overcome now".
A UN-led mediation between the parliament and the High State Council to draft a constitutional basis for the holding of the general election failed to reach a consensus after three rounds in Cairo, Egypt, between the two chambers, and a decisive meeting in Geneva between the presidents of the two institutions.
This stalemate arises out of the issues of eligibility of binationals and the military.
Mr. Guterres mentioned in his press briefing a third requirement related to the need to ensure that "all external actors are able to fully support the reconciliation process and political developments leading to elections and a legitimate government acceptable to all".
Meanwhile, Guterres has expressed his support for the call for a new conference in Berlin on Libya, considering this mechanism as "the most useful international tool".
In response to a question about the importance of reviving the Berlin process now and whether he would talk to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about holding a new conference, Guterres said: "There was an important meeting in Berlin, and the German Foreign Minister has already indicated that Germany will consider this possibility, and I strongly encourage it."
An international meeting on Libya held on 8-9 September in the German capital, Berlin, attended by special envoys to Libya from the United States, Germany, France and Italy and representatives from Turkey and Egypt, in addition to British Ambassador Caroline Hurndall and UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary Di Carlo, reiterated the shared commitment to support a comprehensive path to elections in Libya as soon as possible.
The UN Secretary-General added that "the Berlin Process has been the most useful international instrument through which we have avoided the worst".
Unfortunately, it was not possible to reach a comprehensive solution, but the worst could have been avoided.
On 3 September, UN Secretary-General Guterres announced the appointment of Senegalese Abdoulaye Bathily as Special Representative and Head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).
Mr. Bathily is the eighth and first African to head the mission since its creation in 2011 in the wake of the 17 February revolution that toppled the former regime of the late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
-0- PANA BY/JSG/BBA/RA 15Sept2022
