The United Nations on Tuesday launched a new push to stabilize Libya, getting rival factions to revise a stalled peace deal aimed at putting the country back on track for elections.
The efforts aim to bring to an end the turmoil that erupted after the ouster and killing of long-serving leader Muammar Gaddafi, creating a void that Islamist extremists and people smugglers took advantage of.
Political and military splits have dogged the North African nation since then, leading to the creation of two different governments, one based in Tripoli while the other operated from Tobruk.
U.N. envoy Ghassan Salame last week announced a one-year “action plan” for a transition towards presidential and parliamentary elections.
The plan got underway on Tuesday with negotiations between delegations from the rival governments. The talks are meant to come up with amendments to a previous U.N. mediated deal signed in December 2015.
In the joint meeting held in the Tunisian capital Tunis, Salame urged the various sides to set aside their differences in order to complete the work in time.
“All Libyans are fed up. They are going from transition to transition with no horizon,” he said.
“We have sleeping institutions that need to be awoken, divided institutions that need to be united, and hijacked institutions that need to be rebuilt.”
Under the new plan, after the amendments have been made, a national conference drawn from representatives across Libya will select members to form a transitional government that would run the country until elections are held.
