UN special envoy to Libya in Cairo for two-day visit

Ahram Online , Sunday 25 Oct 2015

A UN sponsored deal on a national unity government in Libya continues to be opposed by the non-recognised government in Tripoli

Bernardino
In this Friday, March 20, 2015 file photo, U.N. special envoy to Libya, Bernardino Leon, speaks during a press conference at the Palais des Congres of Skhirate, 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Rabat, Morocco (AP)

UN Special Envoy to Libya Bernardino Leon will hold meetings in Cairo Sunday and Monday on the Libyan situation, especially to discuss the proposed agreement for a unity government brokered by the UN.

Leon will meet Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Arab League General Secretary Nabil El-Araby, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported.

The UN earlier proposed a unity government during negotiations between different factions in the Moroccan city of Skhirat.

The proposal is opposed by Tripoli's government where a parliament, the General National Congress (GNC), is in place but is not internationally recognised.

On the other hand, an internationally recognised government is operating from the east in Tobruk.

Shoukry said early October, as he participated in a high-level meeting on Libya at the UN General Assembly in New York, that it was not acceptable to delay signing a final political agreement in Libya and forming a national unity government.

A 20 September deadline for creating a unity government in Libya expired amid military escalation near Benghazi, where six people died in fighting between the forces of Libya's internationally recognised government and Islamist militants allied with the Islamic State group.

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