By Sami Zaptia.
London, 23 April 2021:
As part of an international effort to maintain pressure on Libyan stakeholders to keep to the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum’s (LPDF) Roadmap target of 24 December 2021 elections, the Co-Chairs of the International Follow-up Committee on Libya released a statement yesterday:
‘‘United Nations Special Envoy Ján Kubiš and Co-chair Ambassador Christian Buck of Germany warmly welcome the participation of Prime Minister Adbulhamid Dbeiba and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas at the Senior Officials Meeting of the International Follow-up Committee on Libya on 21 April 2021.
Participants welcomed the adoption of Security Council resolutions 2570 (2021) and 2571 (2021) that reflect their shared priorities and objectives and urge the Libyan authorities and institutions to implement them in full.
We reiterate that the primary task of the interim executive authority and all relevant institutions and authorities of Libya is to ensure holding national parliamentary and presidential elections on 24 December 2021, in accordance with the LPDF Roadmap.
We welcome the meeting and conclusions of the LPDF Legal Committee in Tunis from 7-9 April and call on the House of Representatives to clarify and enact, latest by 1 July, the constitutional basis and the necessary legal framework for the elections.
We encourage the HoR to expeditiously adopt the unified budget and the Government of National Unity to restore the delivery of basic services to the population in all parts of Libya, including electricity; to ensure continued operation in the oil sector and the transparent, equitable distribution of resources; to take vigorous steps towards the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of armed groups and all relevant non-state armed actors, to address the humanitarian situation, to further ramp up its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to protect the human rights of all Libyans as well as of refugees and migrants; and to promote national reconciliation.
We expressed concern over the impact of the conflict on neighboring countries including with regards to threats arising from the illicit transfer, destabilizing accumulation and misuse of weapons and the flow of armed groups and mercenaries. We emphasize that the full implementation of the ceasefire agreement remains critical and urge all actors to expedite the withdrawal of all foreign forces and mercenaries from all of Libya without delay, complying in full with the UN arms embargo.’’
