Denis Sassou Nguesso pledges support for UN efforts in Libya
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso has pledged his full support for the UN's efforts, highlighting the dangers of maintaining the status quo in Libya, which is experiencing a deadlock in its political process.
During a meeting in Brazzaville with the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, Sassou Nguesso said the crisis in Libya was a matter of African, Arab and international concern.
He gave thye assurance that everyone must therefore play a positive role in its resolution, said a series of tweets published on Saturday by Bathily and echoed by the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).
"In his capacity as chairman of the African Union High Level Panel on Libya, President Sassou Nguesso stressed that the solution to the Libyan crisis would only be found through a comprehensive process and with positive regional and international support," the UN official reported.
President Sassou Nguesso also stressed, according to the same source, that national reconciliation could only be achieved through the positive participation of all Libyan parties without conditions or restrictions.
It should be noted that the Congolese president is very involved by virtue of his title of chairman of the High Level Committee on Libya, in the search for a solution through the meetings hosted by his country for mediation between the Libyan parties, as well as the technical support to the national reconciliation project supervised by the Libyan Presidential Council.
Mr Bathily tweeted that "in this context, we agreed on the need for the AU reconciliation team to be present inside Libya to include experts from African countries with accumulated experience in the field of reconciliation and to provide it with all the necessary resources to carry out its mandate".
"I reaffirmed the support of the UN Mission in this regard," he said.
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General also said that during his meeting with the President of Congo, he informed him about the progress of his consultations with all parties in Libya, and the efforts to achieve stability and security and restore legitimacy through the elections to be held in 2023.
Libya is in the midst of a new impasse in its political process since the postponement of the 24 December 2021 elections, the organization of which is stalled by the adoption of a consensual legal framework.
The announced agreement between the presidents of the parliament, Aguila Saleh, and the High State Council on a constitutional document and a roadmap leading to elections did not resolve the latent differences between the two men, bringing the country back to square one.
-0- PANA BY/IS/BBA/RA 29Jan2023
