Libya: Pressure mounts on rival parties as October 20 deadline looms

Pressure on rival Libyan political protagonists to endorse the UN-proposed government is increasingly upping with the international community and UN Security Council pushing hard, despite strong division within camps, to back Leon’s proposed government.

On Sunday a number of countries, friends of Libya, called on the political protagonists to swiftly back and implement the UN political roadmap.

Algeria, France, Germany, Italy, Morocco, Qatar, Spain, Turkey, UAE, UK and US as well as the EU urged Libyan parties to approve the UN-backed plan worked out by Libyans themselves.

Foreign Ministers of these countries urged, in a joint statement, the protagonists to stop delaying the approval and made it clear that no further amendments to the final document are possible.

“To secure Libya’s future, we urge the Libyan parties to immediately approve the hard-fought political compromise set forth in the Political Agreement, which will provide a period of stability to the country until a new constitution can be agreed”.

“The Libyan people have made it clear that they want an end to instability in their country, instability which has led to the loss of lives, allowed terrorism to grow, and severely damaged the economy of the country”.

The foreign ministers also re-iterated their full support for Libya in ironing out all its challenges.

Also on Saturday, the UN Security Council (UNSC) underscored its call for all Libyans to quickly proceed on with the adoption of UN-proposed government and stop questioning the genuineness of the political roadmap adding that the agreement “offers a real prospect for resolving Libya’s political, security, and institutional crises.”

The UNSC also threatened to take sanctions against any Libyan who may play spoiler of the political transition and who pauses a threat to Libya’s peace, stability and security.

Approval of the UN-backed government is still being torn into pieces by Libyan political rivals. The House of Representatives (HoR,) internationally recognised as the Libyan Parliament, has delayed adopting the proposed government. It is due to meet this Monday for further debate on the proposal.

Voices within the HoR are ready to side with Leon’s proposed government but they say they will only do so if Leon accepts that Libya’s army Commander in Chief Gen. Haftar remains in post. The latest Libyan amended draft agreement side-lines the general who is deemed by Leon’s and General National Congress (GNC) in Tripoli as spoiler of peace process. The same voices also indicated that they only recognised the July 11 Draft they inked without the GNC.