Final accord ‘very close’ in Libya peace talks: UN envoy
The UN envoy for Libya says that warring factions in the North African country have reached a draft agreement during their latest round of negotiations.
"I can tell you that we have now a draft which looks like something very close to a final agreement," Bernardino Leon told reporters after the latest round of talks in the Moroccan city of Skhirat on Sunday.
"Eighty percent of the text in this draft is, let me put it this way, is something that the parties can agree," Leon said.
He added that the opposing sides would return to Libya for consultations and return to Morocco in two weeks to finalize the accord.
The UN envoy further announced that preparations were underway for the armed factions to enter direct talks for the first time.
"This is very important because all this work, all these efforts, will not work, will be useless, if we don't bring completely on board all those who are taking decisions on the ground, who are fighting on the ground," Leon noted.
Not everything is good news
The UN envoy also censured the current fighting in the country and the release of a new video purportedly showing the execution of some 30 Ethiopian Christians kidnapped in Libya.
"We know that the enemies of peace, the enemies of the agreement, will be active and be even more active in the coming days and weeks," Leon added.
Earlier in the day, a nine-minute video was released online by ISIL that purports to show the beheading of a group of around 12 Ethiopian Christians on a beach and the shooting of another group of at least 16 others in a desert area.
Libya has two rival camps vying for the control of the country, with one governing the capital Tripoli and the other, which is the internationally recognized government, controlling the eastern cities of Bayda and Tobruk. The Libyan internationally recognized parliament, the House of Representatives, is based in Tobruk.
Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) militiamen took over Tripoli in the summer of 2014. It set up its own government and reinstated the General National Congress (GNC), which had been dissolved earlier.
Several rounds of peace talks brokered by the UN in recent months have failed to deliver any practical results that could lead to formation of a unity government.
Libya plunged into chaos following the 2011 uprising against the dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi, whose ouster gave rise to a patchwork of heavily-armed militia groups and deep political divisions.
SRK/NT/AS
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