On Saturday, the Adviser to the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Stephanie Williams, called on the Libyan parties to refrain from any unilateral move that would undermine confidence in the political track.
In a press statement, Williams said that the presence of an elected and sovereign Libyan government is the only way to engage in discussions related to the removal of mercenaries and foreign forces from the country.
Williams stated that the Libyan Parliament Speaker Ageela Saleh and the Head of the High Council of State (HCS), Khaled Al-Mishri, will meet in Geneva next Tuesday. She added that the talks will focus on finalising transitional measures and holding elections.
The UN Adviser noted that the meetings of the constitutional track in Cairo were able to settle a number of controversial issues in the constitutional document.
Notably, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom urged Libyan political leaders to negotiate constructively to end an impasse and agree on a pathway to elections.
“We welcome the degree of consensus reached so far towards agreement and appreciate the work of Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General, Stephanie Williams, and the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL),” the five western countries said in a joint statement on Friday.
“We call on the House of Representatives (HoR), the HCS, and their leaders to urgently finalize the legal basis so that credible, transparent, and inclusive presidential and parliamentary elections can be held as soon as possible, as set out in UN Security Council resolution 2570 (2021), the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) Roadmap, the Libya Stabilisation Conference, the Berlin II conference conclusions, and the declaration of the Paris Conference on Libya.”
The leaders of Libya’s two legislative chambers will meet in Geneva next week for last-ditch talks on a constitutional basis for elections, the UN said on Thursday, although analysts see little prospect of a breakthrough.
Last week, the Turkish Parliament approved a motion to extend the mission of the Turkish troops in Libya for additional 18 months.
The memorandum signed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan indicated that “the efforts initiated by Libya after the events of February 2011, to build democratic institutions, were in vain due to armed conflicts that led to the emergence of a fragmented administrative structure in the country.”