UN plans Libya polls despite conflict
TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI, Libya - The United Nations is determined to hold Libya's national conference on possible elections on time, even as eastern forces advance on the capital Tripoli in an escalation of the conflict, a UN envoy said on Saturday, Reuters reported.
Ghassan Salame, the UN special envoy to Libya, said he was striving to prevent the new crisis from getting out of control. "We have worked for one year for this national conference. We won't give up this political work quickly," he said.
The UN aims to stage a conference in the southwestern town of Ghadames on April 14-16 to weigh elections as a way out of the country's prolonged factional anarchy, which has seen Islamist militants establish a toehold in some areas.
Libya is politically divided between a UN-backed government and a parallel administration in the east allied to General Khalifa Haftar. The country has been struggling to make a transition amid insecurity and chaos since the fall of its former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Haftar's eastern army forces said in a post online on Saturday that they had full control of the airport and were working to secure the facility. They posted photos of troops apparently inside the airport, saying "we are standing at the heart of the Tripoli international airport".
The Haftar forces launched a military operation on Thursday to take over western Libya, particularly the capital, where the UN-backed government is based, according to Xinhua News Agency.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who concluded a visit to Libya on Friday, expressed deep concern.
"I still hope it will be possible to avoid a bloody confrontation in and around Tripoli," Guterres said.
A statement from the offices of French President Emmanuel Macron said he discussed by phone the situation in Libya with Guterres on Saturday. "France will continue to support the UN mediation in Libya," the statement said.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairman of the African Union Commission, on Saturday expressed his deep concern by the heightened tension in the Libya and urged the various stakeholders in Libya to respect the lives and safety of civilians, Xinhua reported.
"The AU commission chairman is deeply concerned by the heightened tension currently prevailing in Libya," then Pan-African bloc said in a statement issued on Saturday.
(China Daily 04/08/2019 page11)
