The United Nation will hold a conference next Monday to discuss the permanent ceasefire in Libya, said the German Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Günter Sautter, on Saturday.
Sautter added that the General Assembly’s meeting will be headed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, and the German Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas.
Sautter told reporters, “This meeting comes at a sensitive time, with the recent encouraging developments in Libya.” He hoped that a “strong message” would be issued on Monday.
He noted that all countries that attended the Berlin summit in January, in addition to the countries of the region, will participate in the meeting. Libya’s conflicting parties will not participate, he confirmed.
“We hope to stop the persistent and flagrant violations of the arms embargo. We also hope to strengthen the role of the United Nations as a central mediator in the political dialogue in Libya,” Sautter explained.
For its part, the United Nations is striving to appoint a new envoy to replace the Lebanese Ghassan Salame, who resigned last March. Diplomats said that African countries are demanding that the new envoy be an African. They opposed naming the Bulgarian, Nikolai Mladenov, who is currently the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.
The United States and Europe support the appointment of Mladenov, but it is unlikely that an envoy will be named by Monday, according to sources.
On Friday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution, extending by a year the authorisation for member nations to inspect vessels suspected of smuggling migrants or engaging in human trafficking on the high seas off the coast of Libya.