Seventy-five Libyan political parties issued a joint statement on Wednesday, urging United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to work towards forming a new unified government in Libya.
They called on Guterres to expand the scope of the political dialogue beyond the initiative of the UN envoy to Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily.
According to Libyan News Agency (LANA), the parties stated in their message to Guterres that it is necessary to reconsider Bathily’s initiative and broaden the participation of Libyans in the political dialogue to produce sustainable solutions, rather than confining participation to the conflict parties.
The parties emphasised that the role of the UN mission in Libya has witnessed a clear decline and deviation from neutrality, which has undermined confidence in its ability to provide an appropriate response to the Libyan crisis.
They called for a comprehensive review of the mission’s working mechanisms, which marginalize political parties in Libya.
The political parties demanded that they have a fundamental role in any action undertaken by the mission and be involved in any political process aimed at resolving the current political deadlock in Libya.
The parties stressed that conducting elections requires a political groundwork that earnestly addresses the causes of the conflict and does not merely deal with the symptoms and consequences without resolving the underlying issues. They affirmed that the time has come to form a new, unified, and streamlined government that operates according to clear tasks and a specific timeframe, leading Libya towards legislative and presidential elections.
The parties requested that their message addressed to the Secretary-General be presented to the members of the United Nations Security Council, expressing hope for progress in conducting the elections desired by broad segments of the Libyan people.
