Libya: the UN comes out of the blockage on the future of its political mission in the country

The headquarters of the United Nations (UN) Organization in New York, September 9, 2020. Daniel SLIM / AFP

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3 min

Perhaps the way out of the crisis for the United Nations support mission in Libya (Manul).

After six months of disagreement between the members of the Security Council, to replace Ghassan Salamé who had resigned from the head of this mission for health reasons, it would seem that the United States succeeded in imposing their vision.

And that the post of the head of the mission be divided in two.

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With our correspondent in New York,

Manul, and Libya as a whole, would have done well without a further crisis.

But for six months and the

, the

has been weakened by a succession crisis - at the same time as the conflict between the government of national unity recognized by the international community (GNA ) and Marshal Haftar's camp.

Neither of the two candidates presented by Secretary General Antonio Guterres could be selected because the United States systematically blocked the nominations, and demanded that the post be split in two, between a political emissary, and a head of mission in charge of the tasks more logistics.

A device very criticized by the 14 other members of the Council in the Libyan context.

Mandate renewed for one year

The candidacies of the former head of Algerian diplomacy

, then of the former Ghanaian minister Hanna Serwaa Tetteh were nevertheless solid - and stuck to the demands of the African Union of a UN representative from the Continent.

But the United States preferred to let the situation tighten up, and play the clock with the end of the interim of the former right-hand man of Ghassan Salamé at the end of September.

Thus, the British will present to the vote this Sunday a resolution renewing the mandate of Manul for one year.

It foresees that it will be steered by a “political envoy”, assisted by a “coordinator” in charge of day-to-day operations.

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