The UN’s envoy for Libya held talks in Tripoli on Friday, seeking to encourage the administration there to commit to a national unity government that would end years of bloodshed.
Martin Kobler, on a desperate diplomatic push to get Libya’s two separate administrations to sign a power-sharing agreement, on Thursday met with representatives of the internationally-recognized government near its headquarters in the east of the country.
“More discussions in Tripoli — I invite all to take responsibility for Libya’s future, take responsibility for next generations,” Kobler tweeted on Friday after meeting with the head of the rival parliament in Tripoli, Nouri Abusahmein.
Photo: AFP
Libya has been in chaos since the 2011 ouster of longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi and now has two governments and parliaments.
Militant groups such as the Islamic State have taken advantage of the lawlessness to make gains along the coastline, and the UN estimates that fighting has forced 435,000 people from their homes.
On Dec. 17, under UN guidance, envoys from both sides and a number of independent political figures signed a deal to unify the government.
About 80 of 188 lawmakers from Libya’s internationally recognized parliament and 50 of 136 members of the rival Tripoli-based General National Congress signed the deal.
It calls for a 17-member government, headed by businessman Fayez el-Sarraj as premier, based in Tripoli.
Abusahmein asked Kobler to meet a number of leaders in the Tripoli-based administration, including senior military and intelligence officers and judiciary.
“We believe that for any political agreement to be effective on the ground, all parties tasked with implementing it have to be present with us today,” he said.
At a press conference in a VIP lounge at Tripoli’s Mitiga Airport late Friday, Kobler said that in meetings with both administrations he put forward “five points.”
First, “the Libyan political agreement is the basis of all discussions. There is no alternative,” he said.
Second, “there should be no parallel initiatives. All initiatives should be based under the umbrella of the United Nations,” Kobler added.
The process must be “inclusive,” and also be guided by the principle of “the peaceful transfer of power from the old institutions to the new institutions,” he said.
Finally, he said, there was “the principle of Libyan ownership. It must be a Libyan agreement and the Libyans must steer the process.”
The press conference was cut short by Jamal Zoubia, head of the media department in the Tripoli-based government, who told Kobler that the event was “illegal” as he needed prior permission.
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
RSS