Security Council welcomes major achievement in Libya as milestone

UNITED NATIONS - United Nations Security Council on Tuesday welcomed a major achievement in Libya as a milestone in its political process.

Through a presidential statement, the Council "welcomes the agreement reached by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum on a new unified interim executive authority charged with leading the country to elections".

UN sponsored talks reportedly produced a new interim government for Libya on Friday aimed at resolving a decade of chaos, division and violence by holding national elections later this year.

"The Security Council calls on the interim executive authority to agree swiftly on the formation of a new, inclusive government, as set out in the roadmap agreed by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum in Tunis, and to make the necessary preparations ahead of national presidential and parliamentary elections planned for Dec 24, 2021. The Security Council further calls on the interim executive authority to improve services and launch a comprehensive national reconciliation process," said the statement.

The Security Council called on all parties to implement the Oct 23, 2020 ceasefire agreement in full and urged member states to respect and support the full implementation of the agreement, including through the withdrawal of all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya without further delay.

The Security Council called for "full compliance" with the arms embargo by all member states, in line with the relevant Security Council resolutions, according to the statement.

"The Security Council underlines the importance of a credible and effective Libyan-led Ceasefire Monitoring Mechanism under UN auspices and welcomes the critical steps towards UN support for the mechanism through the swift deployment of a UN advance team to Libya. The Security Council looks forward to receiving proposals on the tasks and scale of the ceasefire monitoring mechanism from the Secretary-General," it said.

"The Security Council recognizes the important role of neighboring countries and regional organizations in support of UN efforts," the statement said. "The Security Council reaffirms its strong commitment to the UN-facilitated Libyan-led and Libyan-owned political process and to the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national unity of Libya."