Bathily warns against dividing Libya… and this is what he told the Security Council
The United Nations special envoy to Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, gave a “bleak briefing” to the Security Council on Tuesday evening, warning against what he said were “maneuvers” by Libyan parties to postpone the upcoming elections in the country.
In his briefing, Abdoulaye Bathily accused Libyan parties, whom he did not name, of disrupting the elections, considering that this “will greatly deepen the crisis in Libya,” confirming that there was no progress on holding the hoped-for elections. He said: “There was no progress on the Libyan elections, which is frightening to us.”
Bathily spoke about the first of the three Libyan crises, political ones, warning that “the maneuvers of postponing elections will deepen the crisis to a great extent,” referring to the crisis represented by a power struggle between a government appointed by the House of Representatives, headed by Fathi Bashagha, and another headed by Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, who refuses to hand over power despite the end of his term.
He called on the Security Council to call on “all Libyan parties not to resort to violence and intimidation, and to ensure that this does not go unnoticed.” He said, “This must be with the support of the Security Council in particular and the international community in general,” stressing that “speaking with a unified voice will lead to positive results in Libya.”
The U.N. envoy also spoke about Libya’s security crisis and expressed concern “at the lack of progress in adopting the action plan on the withdrawal of mercenaries, foreign forces and foreign fighters from Libya”, which is part of the ceasefire agreement signed in October 2020 in Geneva between the parties to the Libyan military conflict within the Joint Military Commission (5+5).
Regarding the solution, he added that the UN mission in Libya, which he heads, “will seek in the coming weeks and months to facilitate dialogs between the of Libya’s basic institutions as a step forward to overcome differences and progress toward organizing fair and just elections.”
This came a day after the members of the High Council of State were denied access to the meeting hall and armed vehicles were deployed in front of the headquarters of the Council, amidst accusations by the outgoing Prime Minister of National Unity, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, of “being behind the incident.”
The Information Office of the Supreme State Council published pictures of armed vehicles spreading out in front of the Al-Mahary Hotel in Tripoli, saying that “a force affiliated with the Government of National Unity prevents members of the Council from entering the conference hall in the hotel to hold their meeting.”
Libyans hope elections will lead to a transfer of power and end years of armed conflict in their oil-rich country.
It is worth mentioning that the Libyan elections have been stalled since last December (2021) until now; due to the lack of consensus among political parties on the constitutional basis of this electoral process, as a result of disagreements on the conditions of running for the presidency.
