Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 3 September 2016:
UNSMIL chief Martin Kobler has praised Algeria’s “active and constructive” role in Libya at the end of talks which he described as very intense.
Kobler has spent two days in Algiers where he met the minister for Maghreb Affairs, Abdelkader Messahel, whose portfolio also includes the Arab League and the African Union.
Kobler said at a press conference afterwards that Sirte would very soon be freed of IS. He added that his discussions with Messahel had included security issues.
Though Kobler did not expand on this area it is clear that the Algerians remain concerned about security along their border with Libya. While frontier controls are at best feeble in Libya, the Algerians have further increased their border patrols and surveillance.
Messahel played down any particular significance to his latest encounter with the UNSMIL chief insisting it was “part of a series of periodic meetings that enabled us exchange information and analyses and talk about what is currently on the go”.
Messahel repeated Algeria’s view that the Libyan Political Agreement was the only solution to the political crisis and should be made to work as a matter of urgency.
He also suggested that Algeria’s experience of national reconciliation could be of assistance to Libyan politicians.
