The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres has proposed Nikolay Mladenov as a new envoy to mediate the conflict in Libya, diplomats told Reuters.
The Bulgarian diplomat will replace Ghassan Salame, who stepped down in March due to health reasons. Mladenov has been the UN’s Middle East envoy since 2015.
If there are no objections by any of the fifteen Security Council members by Tuesday evening, then the appointment will be approved. This would end months of bickering and have a single person running the political mission, and another focused on conflict mediation.
Libya descended into chaos after the NATO-backed overthrow of leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. In October, the two rival parties in the country’s war, the Government of National Accord (GNA) and the Libyan National Army (LNA), agreed to a ceasefire.