UN envoy promotes next steps in Libya peace plan
Ghassan Salame, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, talks at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 6:54 AM PT — Wednesday, February 19, 2020
The head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya recently advocated for the next steps to maintain the country’s fragile ceasefire. The comments by Ghassan Salame came as representatives of the country’s warring parties spoke with UN officials in Switzerland on Tuesday.
Salame, also the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, described the ongoing efforts built on three separate tracks of economic, military and political negotiations.
The UN-brokered Libyan peace process has continued to reach its goals despite ceasefire violations by both sides. This comes as the Italian and Russian foreign ministers intend to enforce and monitor an international arms embargo on Libya.
“I thank Russia for the diplomatic efforts they made to try to find, at least, a ceasefire in Libya,” stated Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio. “And if we want to achieve the objective of a ceasefire in Libya — to stop this war which is not a civil war, but a proxy war — we have to stop the arrival of arms.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and his Italian counterpart Luigi di Maio, give a joint press conference, in Rome, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Libya has been embroiled in war since 2011, which has placed forces of Gen. Khalifa Haftar in the West against the Tripoli-based government of the prime minister.