The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Monday adopted a resolution extending its political mission in Libya for just three months after a dispute between the West and Russia over the appointment of a new top U.N. envoy for the North African country, which is trying to form a united government after 10 years of turmoil.
The extremely short text, which was adopted unanimously, provides for a continuation of the mission until April 30. An earlier version had authorized the mission until Sept. 15.
The text contains no mention of the council’s hopes that presidential and legislative elections will be held soon in Libya. Initially scheduled for Dec. 24, the presidential election was supposed to have put an end to more than 10 years of chaos and conflict, but it has been postponed indefinitely.
Moscow, which favored a short renewal of the UNSMIL mission, threatened to use its veto and even went as far as proposing a counter-draft to the British text last week in order to stress the need for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to appoint “without further delay” a new envoy for Libya.
Since the abrupt resignation in November of Jan Kubis of Slovakia, the post of U.N. envoy has been de facto occupied by the American Stephanie Williams, an Arabic-speaking diplomat with the title of “special adviser.”
That allowed the U.N. head to skirt around the need for a UNSC agreement on the choice of an appointee, which has for years been a contentious issue.
According to diplomats, Russia is seeking to get rid of Williams as quickly as possible while the United States wants her to stay in her post. -Agencies
