Germany’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Christoph Heusgen, has said that the United States should not prevent UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from appointing a new UN envoy in Libya to replace Ghassan Salame, who resigned five months ago.
The United States now wants to split the role to have one person run the UN mission — known as UNSMIL — and another person focus on mediating peace in Libya, diplomats said.
On March 2, Ghassan Salame announced he had asked Guterres to exempt him from his post as a UN special envoy to Libya, explaining this decision was due to health problems and that he was unable to continue with “this pace of tension.”
“There have been questions raised by our US partners concerning the structure of UNSMIL. We believe that, yes, you can discuss that, but… the US shouldn’t stop the Secretary-General from nominating a successor to Ghassan Salame,” Heusgen told reporters.
The UN Security Council traditionally greenlights such appointments by consensus, but some of the 15 members are not in favour of the US proposal to split the role, diplomats said.
Guterres has suggested former Ghana foreign minister and current UN envoy to the African Union, Hanna Tetteh, to replace Salame. The US has said it can support her nomination after Guterres appoints a special mediator, diplomats said.
Washington had proposed former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt to be a special envoy, but she has withdrawn herself and Washington is now looking for a new candidate.
Libya has been marred in violence between competing forces, militias and extremists since the toppling and killing of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The conflict now pits the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) against the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, for control of the country.