UNSMIL head Abdoulaye Bathily ended a very busy first week in his new role with inclusive meetings covering a cross section of Libyan stakeholders.
Reporting on his meetings, he said that during his meeting with Presidential Council head Mohamed Menfi and his Deputy Abdalla Al-Lafi, he had stressed the solution to the Libyan crisis must come from Libyans themselves.
Last Monday, Bathily travelled to Gubba in eastern Libya where where he met House of Representatives Speaker Ageela Saleh. ‘‘We discussed options to address the political solution’’, he reported.
Bathily said that he had heard views on how to strengthen efforts to hold elections when he met with Emad Al-Sayeh, Chairperson of the High National Elections Commission.
On Saturday, UNSMIL reported Bathily had met a group of women in Benghazi, including academics, lawyers and activists, as part of his ongoing efforts to collect ideas from a variety of Libyan stakeholders about the best path to peace and stability.
“I want to hear the road map you have, not only on women’s issues, but on every aspect of the crisis,” said the SRSG, committing to the women that this will be the first of many meetings. “I want to help Libyans design their own solution to put an end to this.
In a meeting on the same day with Fathi Bashagha, the HoR-designated prime minister, Bathily underscored that the way out of crisis is for Libyans to come together to find a Libyan solution.
He assured Bashagha of his commitment and that of the United Nations to facilitate and support Libyan efforts to overcome the political impasse in the interest of securing peace and stability for the Libyan people.
On the same day in Benghazi, he met the Joint Military Commission’s five eastern members and urged them to continue their efforts to preserve the ceasefire agreement.
Finally, Bathily met on Saturday Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi, where he reiterated his intention to listen to all Libyan stakeholders and reaffirmed UN support for a sustainable, Libyan-owned solution to bring peace and stability back to Libya.
Bathily underscored the criticality of preserving the ceasefire agreement and unifying the country’s security and military institutions.
