UN envoy confident Libya peace talks reach final stages

UN Secretary-General Special Representative for Libya, Bernardino Leon, said on Wednesday that the political dialogue process is finally drawing to its final stages.

"Seven months since the United Nations Support Mission in Libya launched the Libyan political dialogue process, I am increasingly confident that the process is finally drawing to its final stages," said Leon, who addressed the Security Council Wednesday by videoconference from Paris.

This has been a difficult and challenging process, but one that has proven increasingly resilient, despite repeated attempts by spoilers on all sides whose narrow interests and agendas dictate against a peaceful solution to the conflict in Libya, he said.

"That a majority of stakeholders have sought to engage in the different tracks has been a reassuring sign of the grassroots support that the dialogue process has gradually acquired from different segments of the Libyan population," he said.

Leon briefed council members on his efforts to bring Libyan parties together to move forward with the political agreement in Libya, which was initialled by the parties in July. He also provided updates on his ongoing mediation efforts as well as on the outcome of the latest round of the UN-facilitated political dialogue,.

"I reconvened the main dialogue track for a new round of talks in Geneva between Aug. 11 and 12. The two-day talks focused primarily on ways of expediting the dialogue process ahead of the critical Oct. 21 deadline, the date by which the mandate of the House of Representatives would end according to the Constitutional Declaration," he said.

"But most importantly, it will be the determination and commitment of Libyans themselves, more specifically their political leaders, which will safeguard Libya's national unity and territorial integrity, and spare its people the scourge of long-term civil strife and instability," he said.

Leon also stressed the need to mitigate and stop the human suffering in Libya.

According to different United Nations agencies, an estimated 1.9 million people require urgent humanitarian assistance to meet their basic health care needs. Access to food is now a major problem for some 1.2 million people, mostly in Benghazi and the east, he said.

In addition, the figure for internally displaced persons across Libya now stands around 435,000. The healthcare system is on the verge of collapse, with many hospitals across the country overcrowded and operating at severely reduced capacity, many reporting acute shortages of medicines, vaccines and medical equipment, he said.

Leon commented that at the national level, the scale of human suffering is staggering for a country with large oil reserves and strong economic potential.

Source: AFP