On Sunday, in order to hold elections in the conflict-ridden nation, UN Special Adviser on Libya Stephanie Williams urged the country’s rivals to establish a constitutional framework within one week.
At the opening session of the third and final round of talks in Cairo, Egypt, between Libya’s House of Representatives and the High Council of State, which acts as a senate, Williams said, “This final round comes at a critical juncture for your country. After eleven long years of division, dysfunction, conflict, chaos and polarization, the Libyan people are exhausted.”
She added, “Your Libyan compatriots look at you, expecting anxiously tangible results: a firm and consensual constitutional basis that will pave the way for holding transparent elections within the shortest timeframe possible.”
Libyans were also urged by Williams to “put down weapons,” adding that there are “spoilers” who will look to distrust the talks.
While the other 70 percent were addressed in the past rounds of the discussions, the final round of talks is expected to address 30 percent of the conflicting points.
Two governments in Libya, namely the national unity government in Tripoli led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh and the one granted confidence in early March by the Tobruk-based House of Representatives headed by former Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha, have been present in the country for more than three months.
Raising fears that the oil-rich country could slip back into a civil war, Dbeibeh said he will only cede authority to a government that comes through an “elected parliament.”
