Libyan talks on lasting, permanent ceasefire make progress: UN official

GENEVA - A senior UN official on Thursday said here that progress has been made on many important issues in the talks between warring parties in Libya in transforming the truce into a lasting and permanent ceasefire.

Ghassan Salame, special representative of the UN Secretary-General and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, told a press stakeout here that he is very pleased to see "a clear national spirit" inspiring both delegations and that there is a very high level of professionalism in discussing the often technical points related to the cease-fire.

Saying that the ceasefire agreement is made of a number of issues and there have been points of convergence on many of the commitments to be taken by the two parties, he told journalists that there are still "two or three points of divergence" that needed to be treated in the later talks.

The 5+5 Libyan Joint Military Commission started their meeting under the auspices of the United Nations in Geneva on Monday. Five senior officers appointed by the Government of National Accord (GNA) and five senior officers appointed by the Libyan National Army (LNA) are participating in the talks.

"During these talks, the negotiators would be certainly helped by more calm on the fronts and by the absence of any provocative act on the military side by any of the parties in (the) conflict so that they can progress in as rational and moderate environment as possible," said the UN official.

According to him, similar peace talks on economic and financial issues are scheduled to begin in Cairo on Feb 9. And later on Feb 26, a political dialogue between the parties in the conflict will also meet in Geneva for further negotiations.