UNITED NATION: The United Nations’ political affairs chief traveled to Libya on Tuesday seeking progress in a new UN push to unite the country and end years of chaos.
Jeffrey Feltman, the UN under-secretary of state for political affairs, will also travel to neighboring Tunisia during his visit until Friday, said a UN statement.
The United Nations has launched a plan to bring stability to Libya through elections and changes to a 2015 political deal that set up a government of national accord led by Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj.
After two meetings were held in Tunis last year, there appears to have been little progress.
“The United Nations urges all Libyan actors to engage in earnest in an inclusive political process leading to credible and fair elections,” said Feltman.
There is a “window of opportunity” to focus efforts on building unified state institutions, he added.
There was no immediate information on Feltman’s meetings.
Despite the 2015 accord, Libya remains divided between the UN-backed government in Tripoli and a rival administration in the east that enjoys support from Egypt, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.
One of the main stumbling blocks is the inclusion in the new government of Khalifa Haftar, the powerful leader whose Libyan National Army dominates the country’s east.
UN political chief in Libya to push for talks
UN political chief in Libya to push for talks
US, Qatar, Egypt, Turkiye urge restraint in Gaza after Miami talks
- Top officials from each nation met with Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, to review the first stage of the ceasefire
MIAMI: The US was joined Saturday by Qatar, Egypt and Turkiye in urging parties in the Gaza ceasefire to uphold their obligations and exercise restraint, the chief US envoy said after talks in Miami.
Top officials from each nation met with Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, to review the first stage of the ceasefire that came into effect on October 10.
“We reaffirm our full commitment to the entirety of the President’s 20-point peace plan and call on all parties to uphold their obligations, exercise restraint, and cooperate with monitoring arrangements,” said a statement posted by Witkoff on X.
Their meeting came amid continuing strains on the agreement.
Gaza’s civil defense said six people were killed Friday in Israeli shelling of a shelter. That brought to 400 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the deal took effect.
Israel has also repeatedly accused Hamas of violating the truce, with the military reporting of its three soldiers killed in the territory since October.
Saturday’s statement cited progress yielded in the first stage of the peace agreement, including expanded humanitarian assistance, return of hostage bodies, partial force withdrawals and a reduction in hostilities.
It called for “the near-term establishment and operationalization” of a transitional administration which is due to happen in the second phase of the agreement, and said consultations would continue in the coming weeks over its implementation.
Under the deal’s terms, Israel is supposed to withdraw from its positions in Gaza, an interim authority is to govern the Palestinian territory instead of Hamas, and an international stabilization force is to be deployed.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed hope that countries would contribute troops for the stabilization force, but also urged the disarmament of Hamas, warning the process would unravel unless that happened.
