NEW ROUND OF UN-SPONSORED LIBYA TALKS STARTS IN GENEVA

Geneva, 27 Shawwal 1436/12 August 2015 (MINA) – Two rival Libyan factions on Tuesday started new peace talks to deal with the political crisis in Libya by creating a unity government.

The representatives of the Tripoli parliament — General National Congress (GNC) — joined the negotiations with Tobruk-based House of Representatives after boycotting talks last month by not attending two meetings which took place in Morocco, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Since the ouster and death of strongman Muammar Gaddafi in late 2011, Libya has been dogged by lawlessness and frequent clashes between rival groups that have left thousands dead and injured.

The new round was scheduled to start on Monday but it was delayed to Tuesday as GNC delegation did not arrive in Geneva. The talks started late Tuesday with the participation of GNC delegation including Saleh al-Mahsun, deputy president of Libyan General National Congress.

“We are starting a new round of talks with a very clear agenda. This will be on the one hand the ‘annexes’ and on the other hand the unity government,” Bernardino Leon, special representative and head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), said in a press conference in UN at Geneva on Tuesday.

“We will work in the coming days on the basis of a timetable, which must necessarily be short. Libya is facing huge challenges. We have discussed these already in the past; you don’t need more details on how difficult the situation is in the country,” Leon said.

With the country deeply fractured – including two parliaments vying for power and a slew of armed groups battling for control of the country’s oil wealth – the UN hopes to forge a unity government that can ease the violence. (T/P001/RO6)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)