UN envoy Bernardino Leon insisted Wednesday that efforts to clinch a political deal to end the turmoil in Libya will carry on although several parties have rejected his proposals.
Leon’s remarks come a day after Western and Arab states issued a joint declaration urging rival sides to accept a UN plan for a power-sharing government “immediately”.
“The process goes on. There is no chance for small groups or personalities to hijack this process,” Leon told a news conference in Tunis.
“The political solution is the only real alternative,” he said, adding that further meetings would be held in the coming days.
The largely tribal North African nation descended into chaos after the October 2011 ouster and killing of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with two governments vying for power and armed groups battling for control of its vast energy resources.
A militia alliance including Islamists overran Tripoli in August 2014, establishing a rival government and a parliament that forced the internationally recognised administration to flee to eastern Libya.
On October 9, after almost a year of arduous negotiations, Leon put forward a list of names to head a power-sharing government, but both sides balked at the proposed appointments.
Leon said Wednesday that the parties that rejected the proposals had not come up with any alternative.
“The majority of Libyans want a political solution,” he added.
The new UN-backed government was to have been headed by Fayez el-Sarraj, a member of the Tripoli parliament, and include three deputy prime ministers — from the west, east and south of the country.
On Monday, a meeting hosted by the UN Support Mission in Libya and Britain brought together representatives of 40 countries to seek ways to support a government of national accord.
A statement was published jointly by the foreign ministers of Algeria, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Morocco, Qatar, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States, as well as the EU foreign policy chief.
They called on “all parties in the Libyan political dialogue to immediately adopt the political agreement negotiated” by Leon.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s deputy special representative for Libya, Ali Al-Za’tari, said in a statement: “There is no other way except, God forbids, a further slide into bloodshed and chaos.”
A unity government in Libya is seen as the best chance to tackle the rise there of the Islamic State group and migrant-smuggling from Libya across the Mediterranean to Europe.
The UN Security Council has threatened to impose sanctions on those who block a peace deal or undermine any political transition in Libya.
