UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame on Monday announced his resignation, as a fragile ceasefire in the North African country continued to crumble.
Salame tweeted he was stepping down as special representative for Libya because of his health.
He was appointed in July 2017 and had recently been mediating three-tiered talks between Libya’s warring sides on economic, political and military tracks. His goal had been to end the violence and troubles that have wracked the oil-rich nation since 2011, when an international military coalition helped rebels overthrow Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.
Photo: Reuters
In his tweet, Salame, 69, said he had tried to “unify the Libyans, curb foreign interference and protect the country’s integrity.”
“My health no longer allows this rate of stress,” he said, adding that he had asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to relieve him of his post.
Guterres praised Salame’s efforts and would discuss “the way to ensure a smooth transition so as not to lose any momentum on the gains that have been made,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Salame resigned amid an escalation in fighting in Libya, and just days after he announced the near breakdown of a shaky truce between the country’s two rival governments.
One administration controls most of Libya’s east and south, while a UN-backed but weak administration holds a shrinking area of the west, including the capital, Tripoli. A patchwork of armed groups and foreign countries support either side.
The Tripoli administration is backed by Turkey, and to a lesser degree, Qatar and Italy. Eastern miltary commander Khalifa Haftar on the other side receives backing from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, as well as France and Russia.
Salame’s stint was affected by relentless bouts of Libyan fighting, said Jelal Harchaoui, a Libya expert at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations.
“Salame is a credible and talented diplomat, but it in the end, the role of UN special envoy cannot and won’t achieve any tangible progress as long as foreign states remain so brazenly disingenuous vis-a-vis the UN as an institution,” he said.
While hosting diplomatic talks in Geneva last week, Salame had exposed a rift within the delegations representing the Tripoli government and the eastern-based government.
Salame on Friday said that delegates to the political negotiations “from both sides” had walked away from the table.
Haftar’s forces have been waging an offensive to wrest control of the capital since April last year. The fighting for Tripoli has ground down to a stalemate while causing hundreds of civilian casualties.
Haftar’s forces on Friday shelled the capital, forcing the city’s only functioning airport to close.
Later that day, Salame said progress in the negotiations was impossible “when the cannon is doing what it is doing right now.”
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