UN sees progress in Libya peace talks

30 June 2015

Special representative says parties are moving towards a deal

  • Representatives from Libya’s two rival governments have found agreement on nearly all elements of draft peace deal
  • Concerns still exist among analysts that talks will fail to translate into reduced conflict on the ground

Representatives from Libya’s two rival governments have found agreement on nearly all the elements of a draft peace deal.

“It is not 100 per cent, but it is almost 100 per cent,” Bernardino Leon, the UN secretary-general’s special representative for Libya, told reporters after talks in the Moroccan city of Skhirat on 29 June.

“After all these nine months of work we just have two, three issues and this is what the parties are going to discuss tomorrow and after tomorrow… the idea is to be back on 1 July and to have our next meeting on 2 July.”

Although the UN says talks have been “very positive”, there are concerns among analysts that the talks will fail to translate into reduced conflict on the ground.

Security in Libya has seen a dramatic decline since the country’s 2011 revolution, which toppled Muammar Gaddafi.

Amid ongoing clashes between militias loyal to the country’s two rival governments, the jihadist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis) has rapidly expanded in Libya, claiming territory in at least three cities.

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