The new UN envoy to Libya, Abdallah Batili, the Senegalese, took office on Friday in Tripoli, according to the United Nations mission in the country, which suffers from security and political chaos. “I arrived in Tripoli today to begin my duties in my capacity as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to Libya and head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya,” Batelli said in a statement published by the mission in an Arabic version. A senior foreign ministry official has received the ninth UN envoy since 2011, according to local media. The most prominent challenges to the stability of the country are the holding of the presidential and parliamentary elections that were scheduled for December 2021 and then postponed indefinitely due to strong differences on their constitutional basis. Abdullah Batili, who assumed the position that has been vacant since the resignation of his Slovak predecessor Jan Kubis in November 2021, stressed that the priority is to find “a consensual path leading to the organization of comprehensive and credible national elections as soon as possible”, “based on a solid constitutional framework.”He added that “the United Nations is committed to its support for Libya to hold comprehensive presidential and parliamentary elections, as the will of the millions of Libyans who have registered to vote must be respected.”

Source: Libya Today October 14, 2022 17:28 UTC