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UN envoy to propose unity government for Libya

This September 12, 2015 photo shows UN special envoy for Libya, Bernardino Leon, speaking at a press conference during peace talks on the Libyan conflict, in the Moroccan city of Skhirat, 20 kilometers south of Rabat. (AFP photo)

The head of the UN Support Mission to Libya (UNSMIL), Bernardino Leon, has announced plans to propose a list of candidates to form a unity government in Libya.

Leon said Thursday that he will propose the list later in the day after a promise by the General National Congress (GNC) to give names, failed to materialize a day earlier.

“We will be able to propose a government,” Leon told a press conference in the Moroccan city of Skhirat, where negotiations have been under way since July between the GNC and its rival, Libya's internationally recognized House of Representatives (HoR).

“This government and this agreement will be supported by a huge majority of the Libyans all over the country, including of course Tripoli,” Leon said, insisting that the latest text of the UN-brokered deal, which was recently agreed in Morocco, is “final” and “not going to change.”

Delegations from the GNC, based in the capital Tripoli, have, over the past weeks, demanded that further changes be made to the text. The UNSMIL, however, says the warring parties are supposed to agree by the end of this week on five names for the Presidential Council.

Talks resumed on Monday after UN announced a pause two weeks ago for the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha. A statement after the fresh round of talks said that the final signing of the agreement should not go beyond October the 20th, when the mandate of the HoR, which is based in the eastern city of Tobruk, expires.

Libya has been grappling with violence and political uncertainty since the oil-rich country’s former dictator Muammar Gaddafi was deposed in the 2011 uprising. Many hope the UN deal would contain the wave of extremism in Libya and also block the tide of refugees flowing from the North African country to the European shores.


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