UNSMIL starts first round of political talks in Geneva without presence of Libyan MPs

“I can confirm that the Libyan talks have begun at the UN Geneva Office today. Negotiations are ongoing,” Rheal Leblanc, a spokesman for the UN Geneva Office, told Anadolu Agency.

Leblanc said he did not have information about the delegations participating in the negotiations and how many there were.

The UN said in a statement on Tuesday that Ghassan Salame, the special representative of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), would host the meeting at the Palais des Nations under the auspices of the UN.

The political talks follow the completion of a second round of the UN-sponsored military talks on Libya between the warring sides that ended in Geneva on Sunday.

“The two parties agreed to present the draft agreement to their respective leaderships for further consultations and to meet again next month to resume the discussions,” said UNSMIL.

The Libyan Joint Military Commission (JMC) talks were in a 5+5 format with five representatives of the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), and five from the forces loyal to warlord Khalifa Haftar.

The JMC is one of the three tracks, which UNSMIL is working on, in addition to the economic and political tracks, in compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 2510 (2020) and it calls upon the two parties to reach a lasting cease-fire agreement.