UNITED NATIONS: The UN envoy for Libya told the Security Council Wednesday that he is launching a new, final push to bring Libya’s rival leaders on board a 2015 political deal that set up a unity government.
Ghassan Salame said he believed there was “very little chance” of agreement on amending the deal that established the UN-backed government under Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj.
“However, starting tomorrow, I shall commence a new, and final attempt to realize the amendments,” said Salame, who briefed the council by video-conference from Tripoli.
The United Nations has launched a plan to bring stability to Libya through elections this year that are meant to turn the page on years of turmoil since the 2011 ouster of Muammar Qaddafi.
Despite the 2015 deal, 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 has been the inclusion in the UN-backed administration of Khalifa Haftar, whose Libyan National Army dominates the east.
The UN plan “does not depend on these amendments and certainly the closer Libya is to elections, the less relevant these amendments become,” Salame said.
“For the United Nations, working for the conduct of fair, free and credible elections before the end of this year is at the top of our priorities,” he said.
Some 2.5 million Libyans have registered to vote but new election laws have yet to be drafted and plans for a constitutional referendum have stalled.
After eight months in the job, Salame said he was “truly disturbed” by the widespread corruption in oil-rich Libya.
The north African country produces well over 1 million barrels of oil a day but there is no economic recovery.
“This system must be shattered. Resources must flow into building a strong equitable state for all, and not in the pockets of the few,” said the envoy.
The UN mission in Libya is also holding talks with armed groups on a strategy to be unveiled by May on reintegrating fighters into civilian life.
UN in final push to salvage Libya political deal
UN in final push to salvage Libya political deal
US border agent shoots and wounds two people in Portland
- The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement
A US immigration agent shot and wounded a man and a woman in Portland, Oregon, authorities said on Thursday, leading local officials to call for calm given public outrage over the ICE shooting death of a Minnesota woman a day earlier.
“We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more,” Portland police chief Bob Day said in a statement.
The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
The statement said the driver, a suspected Venezuelan gang member, attempted to “weaponize” his vehicle and run over the agents. In response, DHS said, “an agent fired a defensive shot” and the driver and a passenger drove away.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the circumstances of the incident.
Portland police said that the shooting took place near a medical clinic in eastern Portland. Six minutes after arriving at the scene and determining federal agents were involved in the shooting, police were informed that two people with gunshot wounds — a man and a woman — were asking for help at a location about 2 miles (3 km) to the northeast of the medical clinic.
Police said they applied tourniquets to the man and woman, who were taken to a hospital. Their condition was unknown.
The shooting came just a day after a federal agent from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a separate agency within the Department of Homeland Security, fatally shot a 37-year-old mother of three in her car in Minneapolis.
That shooting has prompted two days of protests in Minneapolis. Officers from both ICE and Border Patrol have been deployed in cities across the United States as part of Republican President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
While the aggressive enforcement operations have been cheered by the president’s supporters, Democrats and civil rights activists have decried the posture as an unnecessary provocation.
US officials contend criminal suspects and anti-Trump activists have increasingly used their cars as weapons, though video evidence has sometimes contradicted their claims.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement his city was now grappling with violence at the hands of federal agents and that “we cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts.”
He called on ICE to halt all its operations in the city until an investigation can be completed.
“Federal militarization undermines effective, community-based public safety, and it runs counter to the values that define our region,” Wilson said. “I will use every legal and legislative tool available to protect our residents’ civil and human rights.”
